Our Values
Fulfilling the rights that belong to all people by virtue of their being human depends upon an engaged populace and public officials and institutions committed to the inherent dignity and worth of every person. Our work supports efforts to secure equal rights and opportunity for all.
Our Work
Fundamental human rights are required for people to achieve their full potential and contribute to society. We support efforts to help vulnerable populations gain access to the social, political and cultural institutions that govern their rights. We do this by strengthening the organizations and mechanisms that enforce human rights and by monitoring the policies and practices of institutions that affect the well-being of individual citizens. MORE
Worldwide, we support legal and advocacy efforts to establish and retain basic civil, economic and social rights and to ensure that civil and criminal justice systems are fair, effective, accessible and nondiscriminatory.
All of this work focuses on the world's most marginalized populations, notably women, racial and ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples, immigrant communities and people living with HIV/AIDS. These groups, which are among the poorest and most vulnerable in every society, face some of the most severe forms of discrimination.
Our efforts to ensure human rights for all at the global, regional and national levels are based on the premise that for societies to advance, the value of every citizen must be recognized and each citizen's right to equal opportunity must be secured and upheld.
Our Focus
Advancing racial justice and minority rights
Racial, ethnic and caste-based discrimination persists worldwide. Despite real gains, racial and ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples still face discrimination in virtually every sphere of life—from education and employment to housing and political participation—and suffer from many of the attendant socioeconomic disparities. To achieve equal rights and greater opportunity for these communities, we support efforts to reform policies where they do not adequately exist and to enforce them where they do, and efforts by applied research and advocacy institutions to strengthen racial justice and human rights.
Sara Riós, Director
Protecting the rights of women and girls
Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours and produce half of the world's food yet earn only 10 percent of the world's income and own less than 1 percent of the world's property. Among the poorest and most vulnerable in every population, women and girls encounter an uphill struggle to realize their legal and human rights—not only for themselves but also for their families and communities where they serve as essential caretakers. Although gender equality is recognized in constitutions and laws around the world, in practice women and girls still face enormous discrimination. We support efforts to fully implement laws and international commitments that address gender inequality and discrimination; build effective women's networks and human rights organizations that attempt to rectify structural causes of inequalities and gender discrimination; and strengthen the leadership capacity of marginalized women to articulate the problems that affect their lives and craft solutions to help solve them.
Sara Riós, Director
Protecting immigrant and migrant rights
A greater influx of immigrants has come to the United States in the past 25 years than at any time in history, engendering a backlash that has stripped large segments of the immigrant community of their rights. This population confronts large-scale immigration roundups, the denial of due process in deportation proceedings, abusive detention conditions and increased hate crimes and bias attacks. A growing number of aggressive local measures attempting to restrict every aspect of life, including housing, education and employment, push immigrants into a marginalized existence. In addition, migrants suffer increased violation of their human rights along their routes of travel to the United States and other destination countries such as Mexico. We support organizations at the national, state and local levels that are engaged in immigrant rights advocacy, including efforts to secure comprehensive immigration reform that addresses the realities of migration in both sending and receiving countries. We also support institutions that are crucial to building an effective and lasting movement to protect immigrants' rights.
Sara Riós, Director
Reducing HIV/AIDS discrimination and exclusion
Globally, 90 percent of all HIV infections are found in lower- or middle-income countries. In all country contexts, the picture is the same: The poor and excluded are at greatest risk for HIV infection and indeed encompass the largest proportions of people living with HIV/AIDS. Despite the global response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the most vulnerable people and communities still lack access to prevention, treatment and care. Gender inequalities, stigma and discrimination, the absence of meaningful participation by affected communities and a lack of government accountability drive the epidemic worldwide and hinder progress toward meeting the United Nations goal of universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support. Few countries protect equal rights for people living with HIV/AIDS, and some nations have adopted laws criminalizing this population. To overcome systematic discrimination against people living with, affected by or vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, we support work in multiple regions around the world that pilots and advocates for appropriate legal, policy, health, economic and other measures that will create a culture of respect and dignity, protecting and securing this population's human rights.
Sara Riós, Director
Reforming civil and criminal justice systems
The United States has the world's highest incarceration rate, locking up one out of every 100 adults, with poor people and people of color filling a vastly disproportionate number of prison and jail cells. Both in the United States and in other countries, civil and criminal justice systems face immense challenges in providing equal protection under the law, access to a fair legal process, adequate legal representation and information about legal rights and opportunities. We support organizations that carry out research and legal and policy advocacy to secure meaningful legal reforms. We focus on increasing the quality and accountability of state and local public defenders and prosecutors and on encouraging collaboration among key players that share a commitment to systemic improvement and fairness. Our partners include law schools, research centers, public and private legal aid systems, and community-based organizations, in addition to government and court officials on the leading edge of change.
Sara Riós, Director
Strengthening human rights worldwide
Fundamental human rights remain threatened around the world. In dozens of countries, people are tortured, tried unfairly and denied freedom of expression, among myriad other human rights violations. While much has been done in recent years to develop human rights laws and standards, a critical gap remains in the enforcement of these measures. We support efforts to create an effective infrastructure of organizations, institutions and mechanisms through which human rights are enforced at the global, regional and national levels. This includes reinforcing existing accountability mechanisms through litigation and other advocacy, expanding individual and group access to these mechanisms, and strengthening national human rights organizations that work on behalf of those who are oppressed and excluded.
Sara Riós, Director
Advancing economic and social rights
Access to food, water, shelter, health care and education are basic human rights safeguarded by international law. Yet across the world, nearly 1 billion people live in extreme poverty on less than $1 a day and the majority of the world's people are chronically malnourished, lack basic sanitation and do not have access to land, safe housing or water. Beyond humanitarian assistance that meets immediate needs, it is essential to help people establish their basic social and economic rights. We believe that organizations that help people become active participants in the struggle for these rights are critical strategic players in efforts to break the long-term cycle of poverty. We support institutions around the world through which people can demand their economic and social rights, gain access to those rights and have remedies available when their rights are violated. This work encompasses public interest litigation; community organizing and advocacy targeted at policy reform; monitoring, documentation and applied research; and working to strengthen organizations, networking and alliance-building to effect change.
Sara Riós, Director