School of the Americas Watch is an advocacy organization founded by former Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois and a group of supporters in 1990 to protest the training of mainly Latin American military officers, by the United States Department of Defense, at the School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning. Most notably, SOA Watch conducts a vigil each November at the site of the academy, located on the grounds of Fort Benning, to protest human rights abuses committed by some graduates of the academy or under their leadership, including murders, rapes and torture and contraventions of the Geneva Conventions. Military officials state that even if graduates commit war crimes after they return to their home country, the school itself should not be held accountable for their actions. Responding to "mounting protests", which were spearheaded by SOA Watch, the United States Congress renamed the School of the Americas the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), rather than closing the academy, in 2000. In addition, all students must undergo a minimum of eight hours of class on human rights and the principle of civilian control of the military.