List of Human Rights Education Groups

Back to: Human Rights: Overview

There are many different organizations that support human rights education.  Most are listed at different spots in the Training4excellence.com website.  We are sure there are more to add and we ask your help to notify us of them so we can keep our list growing and updated.    Here are some that have been listed on many of the sites.  Thanks to all who have contributed!

Amnesty International –   https://www.amnesty.org/en/human-rights-education/

Equitas – https://equitas.org/

 

HRE   Human Rights Educators  

About Us

has provided the following lists of organizations:

The Advocacy Lab*
The Advocacy Lab partnered with teachers in New York City high schools to provide in-class human rights education and advocacy skills training at least once a week over the course of the school year. Their grassroots program prepared students with the knowledge, tools and confidence to create positive social change in their communities and in the world.

The Advocates for Human Rights*
The Advocates for Human Rights is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and protecting human rights. Through cutting-edge research, education, and advocacy, The Advocates saves lives, fights injustice, restores peace, and builds the human rights movement in the United States and around the world.

Africa Center, University of Pennsylvania
he Africa Center at the University of Pennsylvania is recognized as a vital and forward-looking center where researchers, students and cultural and business entities come to gain knowledge of historical and contemporary Africa.

American Friends Service Committee
AFSC is a Quaker organization devoted to service, development, and peace programs throughout the world. Our work is based on the belief in the worth of every person, and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.

American Red Cross*
The American Red Cross is a humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education in the United States. Their resources for educators includes a curriculum on exploring humanitarian law.

Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 7 million people who take injustice personally. They campaign for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all.

Amnesty International USA*
Currently the world’s largest grassroots human rights organization, Amnesty investigates and expose abuses, educate and mobilize the public, and help transform societies to create a safer, more just world.

Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School*
Since its founding in 1999 the Carr Center has developed a unique focus of expertise on the most dangerous and intractable human rights challenges of the new century, including genocide, mass atrocity, state failure and the ethics and politics of military intervention.

Center for Civic Education
The Center for Civic Education is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in California. The Center’s programs are implemented with the assistance of a network of public- and private-sector organizations and educational leaders in every state and congressional district in the country and in more than eighty other countries, many of which are emerging and advanced democracies.

Center for Human Rights, University of Iowa
Iowa Center for Human Rights’ mission is the promotion and protection of human rights at home and abroad through distinguished multidisciplinary leadership in human rights research, education, and public service to The University of Iowa, its surrounding communities, the State of Iowa, and beyond.

Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education at Florida Atlantic University
The Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education (CHHRE) at Florida Atlantic University presents cutting-edge training and resources to teachers involved in Holocaust and genocide education. The Center offers workshops, advanced seminars, and summer institutes for K-12 teachers working in the fields of history, arts, languages, religion, science, technology, politics, and social studies.

Center for Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights
Established in 2007, the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights (CGHR) based at the Rutger-Newark College of Arts and Sciences has established itself as a leader in the study of world challenges ranging from the devastation of genocide to the process of conflict resolution and peacebuilding.

Center for World Education, College of Education & Social Services
The College of Education and Social Services (CESS) at the University of Vermont prepares outstanding professionals in education, social work, and human services. We are passionate and deeply committed to student engagement and success within a culture of academic excellence, innovation, experiential learning, and social justice.

Creative Educators International Network
The Creative Educators International Network a non-profit NGO dedicated to inspiring educators who are implementing Value-Creating Education in different ways. Through deepening our own understanding and compassion, we are determined to lay the foundation and construction of a United Nations of Education.

Dorothy Cotton Institute*
Named in honor of Civil Rights legend, Dorothy Cotton, The Dorothy Cotton Institute advances the knowing, sharing, and protection of human rights. The institute offers popular education and training to inspire and support people who want to foster and protect human rights and to advance civic participation for social transformation.

The Dreamers Initiative
The Dreamers Initiative seeks to empower current and future generations to follow their dreams by providing resources, opportunities, education, and connections needed to put their dreams into action. Their programs focus on igniting innovation and stimulating the desire to give back to their community.

Eden Prairie High School
Eden Prairie High School is a four-year public high school located in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Elizabethtown College
Elizabethtown is a private residential college of 1900 students pursuing degrees in liberal arts, STEM, professional fields and education. It is located in Elizabethtown, PA.

Each One Teach One: EOTO World
EOTO World seeks to provide safe spaces for human rights activists to transmit their knowledge and skills in human rights to a global audience, contribute to global efforts to address the Millennium Development Goals, and promote a culture of peace.

Embrey Human Rights Program, Southern Methodist University
The Embrey Human Rights Program (EHRP) at Southern Methodist University educates students and other members of the the global community to understand, promote, and defend human rights as responsible citizens of the world.

European Wergeland Centre
Based in Oslo, Norway, the European Wergeland Centre (EWC) is a resource centre on education for intercultural understanding, human rights, and democratic citizenship.

Facing History and Ourselves
Facing History and Ourselves is a n international educational and professional development organization. Its mission is to engage students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and anti-Semitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry.

Girls Learn International
The GLI Program supports the empowerment of US students as they discover that through their own creative initiatives, dedication, and passionate leadership, they can create real solutions that address the obstacles facing girls and women in the US and around the world.

Global Nomads Group
Global Nomads Group fosters dialogue and understanding among the world’s youth, using technology to enable conversations between middle school and high school students who otherwise would not meet.

Global South Watch, Inc.
Global South Watch creates open and just societies in global south countries by providing civil society organizations with useful information, resources, and relevant trainings to hold their governments accountable.”

Groton Public Library
The Groton Public Library serves the town of Groton, MA.

Human Rights Center, Law School, University of Minnesota*
The Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota promotes research on real-world challenges, prepares future lawyers to defend human rights, and partners with civil society to impact law and practice at the local, national, and international levels.

Human Rights Education Associates*
HREA is an international non-governmental organization that supports human rights education; the training of human rights defenders and professional groups; and the development of educational materials and programming

Human Rights Watch Student Task Force*
The Human Rights Watch Student Task Force (STFis a youth leadership-training program that brings together high school students and educators from the Los Angeles area and empowers them to advocate for human rights issues, especially the rights of children.

IARF-Human Rights Resource Centre
Based in Hindupur, Andhra Pradesh, India, IARF-Human Rights Resource Centre is affiliated with the International Association for Religious Freedom. It creates and distributes human rights education materials.

Independent Commission on Public Education
Believing that all children, their families, and teachers have a human right to dignity in schools, the Independent Commission on Public Education(iCOPE) works to develop an alternative vision of public education based on human rights principles, especially in New york City.

Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University
The Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) is committed to its three core goals: providing interdisciplinary human rights education to Columbia students, fostering innovative academic research, and offering its expertise in capacity building to human rights leaders, organizations, and universities around the world.

 i-ACT 
iACT provides humanitarian action to those affected by mass atrocities. It trains and employs refugees to adapt and lead education, sports, and human rights programs in their communities.

J.J.Hill Montessori School
Located in St. Paul, Minnesota, J.J.Hill School offers a Montessori education for students K-5. The school takes pride in its designation as an international peace site.

National Education Association*
The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest professional employee organization, is committed to advancing the cause of public education. NEA’s 3 million members work at every level of education—from pre-school to university graduate programs.

National Youth Leadership Council
The National Youth Leadership Council works to create a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world with young people, their schools, and their communities through young people, their schools, and their communities through service-learning.

New Roads School
New Roads School provides an inspired college preparatory program to a diverse student population that mirrors the rich diversity of Los Angeles. It encourages collaboration among students, parents, and teachers to develop the tools needed for social, political and moral participation as well as personal fulfillment

PRYDE for Peace
PRYDE for Peace partners with communities to engage their youth on nonviolent, restorative approaches to conflict, and equip them with the knowledge and skills they seek to be leaders for the peaceful social development of their societies

Puffin Foundation
The Puffin Foundation Ltd. provides grants to artists and art organizations who are often excluded from mainstream opportunities due to their race, gender, or social philosophy.

Rex Foundation
The Rex Foundation aims to help secure a healthy environment, promote individuality in the arts, provide support to critical and necessary social services, assist others less fortunate than ourselves, protect the rights of indigenous people and ensure their cultural survival, build a stronger community, and educate children and adults everywhere.

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights*
Working alongside local activists, the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights advocates for a more just and peaceful world trough lasting positive change in governments and corporations. Its programs have pursued strategic litigation on key human rights issues, educated millions of children in human rights advocacy and fostered a social good approach to business and investment.

 Robert H. Jackson Center
Robert H. Jackson Center advances public awareness of the principles of justice embodied in the achievements of Robert H. Jackson, U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Chief U.S. Prosecutor at Nuremberg. The Center engages educators to design creative ways to educate and school children, college students, attorneys, judges and public officials to discuss and reflect on the universal principles of equality, fairness and justice.

Sahel Research and Strategy Group
Sahel Research and Strategy Group promotes and supports the development of democratic governments in the Horn of Africa. Founded by concerned Somali professionals in Minnesota, it partners with local and national governments in the Horn of Africa to stabilize fragmented regions through creating healthy economies and civic participation.

 Schools for Chiapas
Schools for Chiapas is an organization of grassroots activists and communities working to support the autonomous, indigenous Zapatista communities of Chiapas, Mexico. It was created the mid-1990’s by individuals searching for ways to make the world a better place and working to create a world where all worlds fit.

The Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide Studies
The Summer Institute provides in-depth human rights education for students and teachers in the Buffalo area.

 Spain Park High School
Located in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover, Spain Park High School has been consistently recognized as one of the outstanding schools in Alabama.

Teaching for Change
Teaching for Change provides teachers and parents with the tools to create schools where students learn to read, write and change the world.

Teaching Tolerance, Southern Poverty Law Center
Teaching Tolerance combats prejudice among US youth while promoting equality, inclusiveness, and equitable learning environments in the classroom. It produces and distributes free anti-bias resources to educators across the country, including Teaching Tolerance magazine.

Thomas J.Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut
The Dodd Center seeks to advance human rights education through its K-12 Initiative in Connecticut public schools, through the scholarly use of the Thomas J. Dodd Papers, and through its International Justice Research Fellowship.

Universal Human Rights Initiative
Universal Human Rights Initiative seeks to educate about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Its UDHR Video Project of seeks to record native speakers reading the Declaration in every known language.

University of San Francisco – School of Education*
The School of Education offers the USA’s first masters degree in human rights education and a doctoral program in International and Multicultural Education with a concentration in human rights education.

Upstander Project
Defining upstander as someone who stands up, speaks out, and/or takes action in defense of those who are targeted for harm, the project challenges indifference to injustice and raises awareness of the need for upstanders, especially among teachers and their students.

Urban Refugees: Raising the Voices of the Invisible
Urban Refugees is an international organization that works to change the way the world supports urban refugees. It assists refugees in cities around the world to develop their capacity to organize, plan and advocate for themselves.

 US Fund for UNICEF
UNICEF USA supports UNICEF’s work through fundraising, advocacy, and education in the United States.

US Human Rights Network
The US Human Rights Network is a national network of organizations and individuals working to build and strengthen a people-centered human rights movement in the United States, where leadership is centered on those most directly affected by human rights violations, and the full range of diversity within communities is respected and embraced.

Victims of Crisis Aid Society
Based in Nigeria, Victims of Crisis Aid Society works on behalf of refugees and internally displaced persons, orphans, HIV/AIDS victims, and other vulnerable groups.

Voice of Witness
Voice of Witness (VOW) promotes human rights and dignity by amplifying the voices of people impacted by injustice. Through its oral history book series and education program, VOW fosters a more nuanced, empathy-based understanding of human rights crises.

William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, University of Mississippi*
The William Winter Institute works in communities and classrooms, in Mississippi and beyond, to support a movement of racial equity and wholeness as a pathway to ending and transcending all division and discrimination based on difference.

Wings Academy High School
Located in the Bronx, Wings Academy is a small, personalized learning-centered public high school focused on preparing students for the 21st century. A member of the Coalition of Essential Schools, Wings Academy is committed to a philosophy of small classes, student-centered classes, teachers-as-coaches, and performance-based assessment.

World Savvy
World Savvy is a national education nonprofit that works with educators, schools, and districts to integrate the highest quality of global competence teaching and learning into K-12 classrooms, so all young people can be prepared to meet the challenges of 21st century citizenship.

The World As it Could Be Human Rights Education Program*
The World As It Could Be Human Rights Education Program (TWAICB) uses the creative arts to deepen learning about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and inspire participating youth to teach peers and adults about the importance of the UDHR principles and take actions, large and small, that lead to equality, justice and dignity for all.

Woven Teaching
Dedicated to the inclusion of human rights and social responsibility in the curriculum. Woven Teaching offers online forums for collaboration, comprehensive historical information, unit planning, age appropriate lesson plans, effective communication strategies, and in person workshops.

 

Amnesty International USA Human Rights Educators’ Network

Amnesty International is an independent, worldwide, voluntary movement that works to prevent some of the gravest violations by governments of people’s fundamental human rights. The main focus of its campaigning is to free all prisoners of conscience; ensure fair and prompt trials for political prisoners; abolish the death penalty, torture, and other cruel treatment of prisoners; and end extrajudicial executions and “disappearances.” Amnesty works to promote all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international standards, through human rights education programs and campaigning for ratification of human rights treaties.

Amnesty International USA’s Human Rights Educators’ Network is made up of teachers from all parts of the country who, as members of Amnesty International, incorporate the teaching of human rights into various courses including English, History, Art, Science and Civics. The Network has also created a binder of lessons on topics such as children’s rights, women’s rights, human rights and literature, and death penalty. It publishes a newsletter entitled Human Rights Education: The Fourth R, which derives from a belief that teaching human rights is as basic as teaching the traditional “three Rs,” and that “rights” should occupy as central a place in the curriculum as reading, writing and arithmetic.

Contact Information:

Amnesty International USA Human Rights Educators’ Network
53 West Jackson Boulevard, Suite 1162
Chicago, IL 60604

Telephone: (312) 427-2060
Fax: (312) 427-2589
Web Site:  http://www.amnesty-usa.org/education

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Center for Human Rights Education

The Center for Human Rights Education (CHRE) is an organization that brings together an incredible diversity of human rights experts and activists from the U.S. and other countries, bridging divisions of race, religion, class and gender to work for the common purpose of human rights education. CHRE’s mission is to train community leaders and student activists to promote the full realization of human rights in the United States. Its goals are to increase human rights literacy and understanding among activists in the U.S., to improve cooperation among progressive social change movements by using the human rights framework, and to use human rights education as a catalyst for social transformation. CHRE’s strategic programs include the training and technical assistance for educators and activists, an information clearinghouse, multi-media communications, sponsorship of human rights events and collaborations, and a speakers bureau.

Contact Information:

Center for Human Rights Education
P.O. Box 311020
Atlanta, GA 31131

Telephone: (404) 344-9629
Fax: (404) 346-7517

Loretta Ross, Director
E-mail: rosschre@aol.com

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The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute

The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute has convened a National Coordinating Committee for the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Millions of Americans from all walks of life have joined together in a growing coalition of more than eighty national organizations to promote an Action Agenda for the 50th anniversary. Our campaign theme – IN YOUR HANDS – echoes Eleanor Roosevelt’s belief that “the destiny of human rights is in the hands of all our citizens in all our communities.” Supporters of the IN YOUR HANDS campaign have decided to take the future of human rights into their own hands and to help fashion a world where the rights and freedoms of the individual are recognized and respected. We invite all people of good will to join with concerned fellow citizens in sounding a national call to action throughout 1998 – Human Rights Year. Take the destiny of human rights IN YOUR HANDS!

Contact Information:

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
801 Second Avenue, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10017-4706

Telephone: (212) 907-1343
Fax: (212) 682-9185
Web Site  http://www.udhr50.org

Michael Cooper, Director of Human Rights Office
E-mail: mcooper@unausa.org

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Human Rights U.S.A.

Human Rights USA is a human rights initiative of four partners: the Amnesty International USA Educators’ Network, the Center for Human Rights Education, Partners in Human Rights Education (a joint project of the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center and Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights), and Street Law, Inc. Human Rights USA is funded by the Ford Foundation. Human Rights USA seeks to reach educators and students, social justice advocates and the general public to achieve a new level of awareness about the scope, relevance and meaning of human rights in the United States, commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to foster action to guarantee these rights. Human Rights USA’s primary activities include: 1) an intensive community and school-based human rights education and advocacy programs and activities in four sites; 2) national outreach to schools and social justice organizations; 3) maintaining a Resource Center with information and materials on human rights education; 4) providing an interactive Web site (www.hrusa.org); 5) conducting a media campaign to raise awareness of human rights in the United States; and 6) working with other organizations to create a national human rights network.

Contact Information:

Human Rights USA Resource Center
229 – 19th Avenue South
437 Law Center
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Telephone: 1-888-HR-EDUC8
Fax: 612-625-2011
Web Site: http://www.hrusa.org
E-mail: hrusa@tc.umn.edu

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Partners in Human Rights Education

Partners in Human Rights Education is a community education project to help students learn about human rights and practice respect for others both in and out of school. It was established by the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights and the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center in 1992. The goal of Partners in Human Rights Education is to teach rights and responsibilities through understanding the importance of human rights, and developing skills to act on this information. These concepts enable students to respect human dignity and critically question why inequities and intolerances exist in their communities and the world. Originally, 20 partnerships of classroom teachers and lawyers were paired and trained in Minneapolis, St. Paul and surrounding communities. Together they taught children about their human rights, including civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. The Partners program has now expanded to include teams of community resource people, lawyers and classroom teachers. The current objective is to reach 75 classrooms and more than 3,000 students each year.

Contact Information:

Partners in Human Rights Education
229 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Telephone: 612/626-0041
Fax: 612/625-2011
Web Site: http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/education/pihre

Marna Anderson, Director
E-mail: humanrts@gold.tc.umn.edu

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Peoples Decade for Human Rights Education (PDHRE)

Peoples Decade for Human Rights Education (PDHRE) is a non-profit, international service organization that works directly and indirectly with its network of affiliates — primarily women’s and social justice organizations — to develop and advance pedagogues for human rights education relevant to people’s daily lives in the context of their struggles for social and economic justice and democracy. PDHRE was founded in 1988.

PDHRE is currently collaborating with a number of U.S. based NGOs on the UDHR50 in providing resources, networking, and solidarity. These organizations include Center for Human Rights Education (CHRE), FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN), Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU), the New York coalition of Jobs for Justice, and Voices 21. PDHRE developed a human rights resource kit for Voices 21 in their participation in the Multilateral Investment Agreement NGO negotiations in Paris. This resource kit mapped the human rights framework, commitments and obligations associated with globalization. The resource kit was one of the very few human rights documents available to the process. PDHRE has made similar resource kits for the human right to sustainable livelihoods, basic human rights needs, governance, indigenous peoples, women, adequate housing and land, to mention a few. These efforts are part of the Global Human Rights Education Campaign to Reclaim and Secure our Right to be Human: Solidarity, Education and Cultural Activities Towards and Beyond the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Contact Information:

People’s Decade for Human Rights Education
526 West 111th Street, Suite #4E
New York, NY 10025

Phone (212) 749-3156
Fax (212) 666-6325
Web Site  http:// www.pdhre.org

Shulamith Koenig, Executive Director
E-mail: pdhre@igc.apc.org

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Street Law, Inc.

Street Law, Inc., is a nonprofit organization that educates people about law, democracy and human rights. For more than a quarter of a century, Street Law, Inc., formerly the National Institute for Citizen Education in the Law (NICEL), has been creating powerful educational programs in the U.S. and around the world. Widely recognized for leadership in education, Street Law’s unique interactive, participatory approach develops problem-solving, critical thinking, cooperative learning, and communication skills, and encourages effective participation in society. Street Law’s work is based on the idea that democratic habits are not inherited, but must instead be carefully learned and practiced by each generation in order to sustain civil society. Through its philosophy and programs, Street Law, Inc. draws real-world connections between the lives of people, especially young people, and the law, human rights, and democratic values. Its domestic programs teach practical knowledge, develop critical life skills, and provide opportunities for positive interaction with the community. Street Law’s international programs empower people around the globe to participate constructively in their societies and governments.

Contact Information:

Street Law, Inc.
918 16th Street, NW, Suite 602
Washington, DC 20006-2902

Telephone 202/293-0088
Fax 202/293-0089
Web Site  http://www.streetlaw.org

Edward O’Brien, Director
E-mail: eobrien@streetlaw.org