hreusa

Assemblies—gatherings where large numbers of people come together to deliberate and make collective decisions—are a powerful tool for democratic governance and movement-building. As the U.S. and countries around the world struggle to meet people’s material needs, reduce extreme concentrations of wealth and defeat right-wing racist and xenophobic authoritarian threats, assemblies and other models of collaborative governance hold potential to help reverse the tide. In this webinar, we’ll talk with Ben Palmquist, author of a new report on assemblies, about how different forms of assemblies including people’s movement assemblies and civic assemblies are reshaping governance across the U.S. and around the world. And we’ll hear from Just Futures in Washington State and the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition about how they’re using assemblies and building community-government collaboration to support community-led visioning and power-building for equity and justice for all.

Featured speakers:

• Kesi Foster, Co-Executive Director, Partners for Dignity & Rights (moderator)
• Evan Casper–Futterman, Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition
• Katherine Mella, Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition
• Esther Min, Front and Centered
• Lindsay Morgan Tracy, Washington Economic Justice Alliance, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services
• Ben Palmquist, Partners for Dignity & Rights, New Social Contract

Tuesday, September 9, 2025, 9am PT / 12pm ET / 6pm CET, virtual (available in English with Spanish interpretation)

>> Register

Thursday, October 23, 2025, starting at 12noon, at the Church Center of the United Nations, 777 United Nations Plaza, in New York, NY. Lunch will be served. 
The event will also be livestreamed for those who wish to view from afar.

The Fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United States has been set to take place in November 2025. The UPR is a unique United Nations Human Rights Council process that allows all United Nations Member States to undergo a peer review of their human rights records every 4.5 years. So far this year, the United States government is refusing to participate in this process. Nonetheless, U.S. civil society will mobilize to ensure that people’s voices are heard through important testimonies to build a record toward addressing human rights violations here in the United States. As part of those efforts to build a record, a People’s UPR is being organized as a side event during the Third Committee Session at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, NY.  We hope that the People’s UPR will be attended by United Nations, Country Mission, and Embassy staffers both in NY and in Geneva (via zoom).

There will be opportunities for directly impacted persons (a ‘directly impacted person’ is someone who is personally and directly affected by the law, policy, practice, act or omission by the government) to testify in-person during the People’s UPR regarding human rights issues in the United States. The event will be livestreamed but there will be no opportunities for persons to testify live via the web. Instead, we will play prerecorded testimony received via video ahead of time from persons who cannot attend in-person.

Tentative Schedule for People’s UPR:

12-2pm Testimony from Directly Impacted Persons 

2-3pm Q&A

4pm Press Conference

>> Sign up here to receive information regarding the People’s UPR as it is available.

Visit this page to get up to date on the latest HRE USA news.

See past issues of the newsletter here.

We are pleased to announce the availability of our latest installment of podcast episodes in Human Rights Education NOW! Episodes 62 & 63 feature conversations with Zeynep Karatas, Eugenia Ricciotti, and Tata Varadashvili.

Zeynep Karatas

Zeynep Karatas is a recent graduate of University of California – Irvine (UCI), where she studied Political Science and International Studies in the honors program. She gained experience with several international human rights organizations, including The Borgen Project, Lawyers Without Borders, the United Nations Association of the USA, and The Advocates for Human Rights. On campus, she held multiple leadership roles in student government, teaching, and event planning. Her honors thesis on the European Court of Human Rights examined the protection of rights amid democratic erosion, presented at three conferences. Recognized with awards such as UCI’s Outstanding Undergraduate Award, the Phi Beta Kappa Graduate Study Award, and the Order of Merit, she aspires to pursue graduate school and a career in international human rights law.

Eugenia Ricciotti

Eugenia Ricciotti is a law graduate from the University of Trento, Italy, currently pursuing a Master’s in Human Rights and Sustainability at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. She previously interned with The Advocates for Human Rights, contributing to advocacy campaigns, women’s rights initiatives, and the Beijing+30 project, which documents the 1995 Beijing Conference on Women. With interests in minority rights and gender equality, she hopes to build a career as a researcher and advocate in human rights.

Tata Varadashvili

Tata Varadashvili, based in Vienna, Austria, is a graduate of Central European University with a degree in Political, Legal, and Governmental Studies and will soon begin her LL.M. in Human Rights. She has served as First Vice Chair of the Student Union and participated in numerous human rights initiatives during her studies. Currently interning with the WAVE Network, she aims to pursue a career specializing in women’s rights and international criminal law.

Thank you for supporting the Human Rights Education NOW! podcast!

Schools that receive federal funding are mandated to teach about the Constitution on Constitution Day (September 17). So, let’s do that. Let’s engage young people in an active study of the Constitution.
Join our campaign to Teach Truth on Constitution Day. We offer free resources to do one or all of the following:Teach honestly about the Constitution. Why it is worded the way it is, how it has been amended, and what it allows/denies to the public.  Make sure students know their rights under the Constitution. These include the right to remain silent, the right to read and the choice of what to read, freedom of speech, and equal protection of the law — which applies to everyone, documented or not. Emphasize that rights are not fixed or guaranteed. Rights must be championed and protected by each new generation, in and beyond the Constitution.
Community members can play a critical role in defending the freedom to learn. For example, they can propose that their school district adopt a Freedom to Learn resolution or host a gallery walk on Ten Ways to Rethink the Constitution in a public space.

Sign up to show that you are committed to teach truthfully about the Constitution on Constitution Day and all year long. 

Learn More and Sign Up

It’s almost Constitution Day, and the Center for Civic Education has the high-quality instructional materials you need to engage your classroom. Visit our Constitution Day page to get everything from our video series, The Constitution EXPLAINED, to deeper curricula, like our We the People resources, and free lessons for every age.

What Is Constitution Day?

September 17 is recognized in the United States as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. On this day, we commemorate the creation and signing of the supreme law of the land and celebrate the privileges and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship, be it for native-born or naturalized citizens.

Federal law requires that all schools receiving federal funds hold an educational program for their students on September 17 of each year.