New Brunswick, as with its fellow Atlantic provinces, had no presence among the first generation of rights associations, not even a branch of the League for Democratic Rights.  A branch of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association was formed in Fredericton in 1969 under president John Oliver with about 60 members and continued to operate until 1975.  In its first year of operation the organization established a legal aid office and, in the same year, came to the defence of Tom Murphy, a writer for the student newspaper at the University of New Brunswick.  Murphy had written a column on the recent barring of a professor from the university, Norman Strax, accusing the courts of perpetrating a mockery of justice and being tools of the corporate elite. Alan Borovoy was flown in from Toronto by the Fredericton CCLA to challenge the charge against Murphy of scandalizing the courts.  Borovoy argued that the Crown had to prove actual interference in the administration of justice but he lost the case and Murphy spent ten days in jail.

An additional group was formed in Bathurst (Comité des droits de l'homme du nord-est du Nouveau Brunswick) in 1971 with 300 members which was defunct by 1980 although it had been effectively inactive since 1975 [the first meeting of the Comité des droits de l'homme du nord est du Nouveau Brunswick was held on 16 May 1971 where a provisional committee was established to draft a constitution.  On 17 December 1972 the constitution was approved and the organization formally created.  It was organized along the regions established in the province for educational purposes (six in total), with 3 directors from each region being elected alongside 9 at-large members.  The original impetus behind the organization was simply a group of friends who were active in other francophone community groups and who were inspired by the ideas of the UDHR and the Bill of Rights].  Jean-Marie Nadeau of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour was the group's first executive secretary and its founding president was Théo Gagnon, provincial director for welfare services in the north-east region (many of the group's early founders eventually became the leaders of New Brunswick's francophone labour movement).  Within a year the group had applied for Secretary of State funding and established an office in Bathurst with seminars to discuss the role of the provincial ombudsman, legal aid and the human rights commission.  Of all the New Brunswick rights associations, the Bathurst organization was the most active, offering a referral service and working with the ombudsman and human rights commission to establish offices in the region.  This organization emerged as a result of the social and economic problems of the region, specifically high unemployment and lack of services for Acadians in French.  The group's primary goals and accomplishments were lobbying the government to extend unemployment benefits and services to this largely poor region of New Brunswick and improving access to French services in the north-east.

Another association called the Comité pour les droits de l'homme du sud-est du Nouveau Brunswick, emerged in 1972.  Little is know about the latter except that it joined the Federation in 1972 when it was formed and remained active in the Federation until 1975 when the sud-est group dropped off the map.  According to the Federation, the sud-est group fell from a remarkable 1500 members to 10 within a year and became inactive by 1975.  It most likely emerged as a result of a particular event which mobilized the local populace and soon became defunct after the issue was concluded.  Finally, in 1975 (around the time the Fredericton chapter of the CCLA became defunct), a fourth rights group emerged in New Brunswick called the New Brunswick Human Rights and Civil Liberties Association.  It was formed at the initiative of Norville Getty, a former leader of the Prince Edward Island Civil Liberties Association, who was traveling to Fredericton in his capacity as President of the Federation.  Getty encouraged a small group of local young professionals, mainly professors and civil servants, to form an association and join the Federation.  The group (mostly anglophones from the south of the province) was led by Cynthia Davis, a civil servant with the provincial government, and most of their time was spent responding to phone calls from people unsure about their rights.  It became defunct in 1983.