In Spring 2026, the University of Dayton Human Rights Center hosted its 7th Social Practice of Human Rights conference on the theme of “Creative Resistance.” In this spirit, and with support from the Foundation for Systemic Change, we dedicated time for an intimate, closed-door workshop and convened leaders for a participatory workshop to interrogate the past, take stock of the present, and envision an effort to build a new human rights movement in the United States.
Organizers, educators, students, lawyers, and advocates visited from east coast centers, southern beacons, midwest outposts, and the borderland for an open and critical conversation. Folks came from multiple points of entry into movement work, a mix of elders and newcomers, and from various degrees of immersion in “human rights” as such. We coalesced around a shared idea to build honest, inclusive, accessible mass movements for human dignity and equality; collectively oriented and eyes-wide-open to the realities we confront.
In the opening session, we conducted an ecosystem asset mapping activity responding to the prompts: Where is human rights work happening in the United States today? Where is human rights powerful? Teams poured over maps splayed out on tables set with arts and crafts supplies to plot actors and agents of change; physical spaces and built infrastructure; sites of victory and sites of struggle; cultural knowledge, history, and ideas; and material resources. With metallic star stickers, these categories manifested as visual artifacts of the US human rights movement but the green stars – material resources – were scarcest. One participant stood up in the back of the room and declared, “These maps should have green stars everywhere. We are the resources!”
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HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.