Events – HRE USA

SIMA Awards: Open Call

by hreusaSeptember 30, 2026Leave a comment

The annual SIMA Awards recognize outstanding achievements in high-integrity documentary storytelling, honoring bold, cinematic work from around the world that defines the field, expands perspective, and resonates far beyond the screen. Each year, projects from over 140 countries compete for awards, cash prizes, global recognition, and entry into SIMA’s distribution ecosystem — extending their reach into classrooms, communities, and cultural spaces worldwide.

DEADLINES

Early Bird Deadline — September 18

Regular Deadline — September 25

Late Deadline — October 9

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.

TAAS Module 2: Election Protection Training: Protecting Access to the Right to Vote

by hreusaSeptember 22, 2026Leave a comment

Flyer
Register here

The 2026–2027 Training as Action Series will center on the theme, “Voices for Justice: Human Rights, Civic Action & Creative Resistance.” This year’s sessions will explore urgent issues such as immigration reform, protecting democracy, protest rights, and various forms of creative resistance, highlighting how human rights education can equip communities to respond with clarity, courage, and collective action.
Those who attend six or more sessions will receivea certificate from HRE USA. 2026-27 TAAS Flyer

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.

Greater Than the Sum of our Parts: Lessons from an Inter-field Collaboration in Parkersburg, WV

by hreusaSeptember 17, 2026Leave a comment

Sep 23, 2026 12:00 PM in Central Time (US and Canada)

Join us to explore how bridging, organizing, and participatory democracy can add up to more than the sum of their parts. What happens when bridging, community organizing, and participatory democracy work together? The Civic Action Lab (previously known as the SHIFT Action Lab) put this question to the test through a year-long pilot in Parkersburg, West Virginia. The Parkersburg Engagement Project leveraged these three approaches to engage hundreds of residents to take on the issue of substance use. This webinar builds on a recent article in the National Civic Review, which explores the pilot in depth — including key moments where each field’s unique skills proved indispensable. In this webinar, we’ll explore lessons from the Parkersburg Engagement Project and how bridging, organizing, and participatory democracy helped strengthen leadership, navigate challenges, gather community input, and turn more than 500 ideas into a community-driven action plan.

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.

Masterpeace Foundation & SIMA Academy: International Day of Peace 2026

by hreusaSeptember 16, 2026Leave a comment

Every September 21st, people across the world pause for something rare: a shared moment dedicated purely to peace.

This year, MasterPeace Foundation and SIMA Academy are joining forces to mark the International Day of Peace with something a little different — a global film screening initiative that uses the power of storytelling to bring people closer together.

Movies have a strange kind of magic. A story told well can make a stranger’s struggle feel like your own, can turn statistics into faces, and can open a conversation that would otherwise never happen. That’s the idea behind this year’s campaign: instead of just talking about peace, we want communities to sit down together, watch, feel, and talk — really talk — about what peace means where they live.

This isn’t a one-city event. It’s designed to happen in living rooms, community centers, schools, and public squares, wherever people are willing to gather. Local partners and MasterPeace clubs will choose films that speak to their own context — stories about reconciliation, climate resilience, gender equity, migration, or simply what it looks like when ordinary people choose dialogue over division.

>> Learn more and join the campaign

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.

Zinn Education Project: Latinx Heritage Month: Teach Outside the Textbook

by hreusaSeptember 16, 2026Leave a comment

When we talk about American history, too often we forget that the Americas includes more than the United States.

Latinx (also called Latine) Heritage Month is a good time to remember how all Americans are part of an interconnected history. That is especially true today, when millions of immigrants from the Americas are being slandered and criminalized by the current administration. People have fled their homes in Mexico, Central, and South America often because of decades of U.S. military, economic, and climate policies that have exploited people and turned so many into refugees. And let’s remember, too, that much of the United States used to be Mexico, and that Mexicans have a history that stretches back to before there even was a United States.

In response to the disruptions wrought by U.S. policy, people throughout the Americas have sought to build lives of dignity in their original homelands, and also here. Whether we think of the Cuban Revolution, the election of the socialist Salvador Allende in Chile, the union activism of U.S. farmworkers, the Chicano student blowouts in East L.A., or today’s struggles against the racism and lawlessness of ICE — Latinx Heritage Month means we should teach about everyone’s work for justice. We offer free lessons and recommendations for books and films, including the titles below.>> See all resources

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.

TAAS Module 1: Campus Organizing and Resistance Mechanisms

by hreusaSeptember 8, 2026Leave a comment

>> Register here

tinyurl.com/taas-2026-27-m1

Module 1 Flyer

SUMMARY
Current and past university students will discuss their recent and past efforts to organize around human rights issues in a university setting as well as where their organizing has taken them beyond the university.

OBJECTIVES
Participants will understand past and ongoing efforts by university students to address contemporary human rights abuses.
Participants will gain knowledge about campus organization models for organizing around human rights abuses.
Participants will learn about how university students approach their activism and organizing beyond their undergraduate years.
Participants will learn from Minnesota youth about the ICE occupation of Minnesota, how they have been and continue to be affected by it, and their response to it.

The 2026–2027 Training as Action Series will center on the theme, “Voices for Justice: Human Rights, Civic Action & Creative Resistance.” This year’s sessions will explore urgent issues such as immigration reform, protecting democracy, protest rights, and various forms of creative resistance, highlighting how human rights education can equip communities to respond with clarity, courage, and collective action.
Those who attend six or more sessions will receivea certificate from HRE USA. 2026-27 TAAS Flyer

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.

The 2026-2027 Training As Action Series (TAAS) is back in September!

by hreusaSeptember 4, 2026Leave a comment

Human Rights Educators USA’s annual Training as Action Series (TAAS) is a virtual training series focused on bridging personal and collective action on some of the most critical human rights issues of today. TAAS creates an educational space to connect and collaborate with others in human rights education and training. It also gives participants the skills and information needed to take action on rights issues of today.

The 2026–2027 Training as Action Series will center on the theme, “Voices for Justice: Human Rights, Civic Action & Creative Resistance.” This year’s sessions will explore urgent issues such as immigration reform, protecting democracy, protest rights, and various forms of creative resistance, highlighting how human rights education can equip communities to respond with clarity, courage, and collective action.
Those who attend six or more sessions will receivea certificate from HRE USA. 2026-27 TAAS Flyer

Monday, September 14th, 7 pm ET
Module 1: Campus Organizing and Resistance Mechanisms
Register here

SUMMARY
Current and past university students will discuss their recent and past efforts to organize around human rights issues in a university setting as well as where their organizing has taken them beyond the university.

OBJECTIVES
Participants will understand past and ongoing efforts by university students to address contemporary human rights abuses.
Participants will gain knowledge about campus organization models for organizing around human rights abuses.
Participants will learn about how university students approach their activism and organizing beyond their undergraduate years.
Participants will learn from Minnesota youth about the ICE occupation of Minnesota, how they have been and continue to be affected by it, and their response to it.

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.

SIMA x MasterPeace: Bring International Day of Peace to Your Community

by hreusaSeptember 1, 2026Leave a comment

This International Day of Peace, SIMA Academy and MasterPeace Global are joining forces to bring powerful documentary storytelling to communities around the world.

Through a curated collection of five award-winning SIMA Academy films, MasterPeace members and young leaders everywhere are invited to come together to explore the people, ideas, and movements shaping more just, peaceful, and connected societies.

Join The Campaign →

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.

IAHRE 2026 HRER webinars series 2

by hreusaAugust 29, 2026Leave a comment

We are delighted to announce the programme for series 2, autumn 2026. Please see information about all webinars on our website. Registration is open for the first webinar in the series that will take place on September 8!

All past webinars can be viewed on our Human Rights Education Review YouTube channel.

Register below. Registration for each webinar opens 4 weeks in advance of the event.

Tuesday 8 September 16.30 – 17.30 (London); 17.30-18.30 (Berlin CET)

Sadiya OSMAN, University of Leicester, UK

Register here

Navigating academia: the intersectional experiences of Black Muslim female students in UK higher education

Sadiya Osman examines the structural and cultural barriers faced by Black Muslim women in UK higher education. Using intersectionality theory, this article explores how race, gender, and religion intersect to shape these women’s lived experiences of racism, discrimination, and exclusion. Framed within a human rights context, the study exposes the gap between institutional commitments to equity and the realities of marginalised students, calling for transformative changes to create a more inclusive higher education environment. It is of interest to all interested in challenging the structural inequalities of higher education.

Read Sadiya’s published article here: Navigating academia: the intersectional experiences of Black Muslim female students in UK higher education

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.

4th International Conference IAHRE 2027: Call for Papers

by hreusaAugust 25, 2026August 25, 2026Leave a comment

Interdisciplinarity in Human Rights Education

14-15 June 2027 OsloMet University, Oslo, Norway

Conference Announcement and Call for Papers

The International Association for Human Rights Education (IAHRE) was established in 2023 at the 15^th International Conference for Education and Democratic Citizenship (ICEDC) hosted by Sutherland School of Law at University College Dublin, Ireland. IAHRE exists to support the development of human rights education research, scholarship and practice. It has been awarded charitable status in recognition of its efforts to promote the public good. IAHRE’s scholarly journal is the award-winning Human Rights Education Review (HRER) founded in 2018 and published by Taylor & Francis.

The IAHRE Conference is a meeting place for scholars, researchers, graduate students, education policymakers, and civil society activists from across Europe and internationally. It builds on the work of the WERA International Research Network on Human Rights Education, coordinated by Professors Audrey Osler and Hugh Starkey. It provides a unique opportunity to present and discuss current research and policy relating to human rights education and questions of human rights within education. There is an expectation that presenters accepted for IAHRE 2027 will submit their final revised conference papers to Human Rights Education Review shortly after the conference.

Call for papers

We invite papers for the 2027 IAHRE Conference Interdisciplinarity in Human Rights Education. IAHRE 2027 aims to build on the vast array of disciplines that contribute to human rights education, and we welcome scholars from sociology, education, law, history, politics, geography and other relevant disciplines, as well as those specialising in regional studies. Papers should review and critically reflect on human rights education policy and practice, child rights education and the wider area of education and human rights. We are interested in research that addresses HRE across formal education, from early years through to higher education, as well as community-focused and community-led initiatives designed to enhance and strengthen human rights understanding. Papers reflecting the work of those aiming to enhance human rights understanding in professional education, in diverse fields, including teacher education, medicine, nursing and social care also welcome.

Colleagues working in NGOs and international organisations who have campaign case studies are likewise invited. We welcome contributions from researchers at all stages of their careers.

At IAHRE 2027 we aim to build upon the contributions at IAHRE 2026 Re-imagining Human Rights Education in a Turbulent World that recognised how human rights education is taking place in an increasingly unstable world with growing authoritarianism and challenges to human rights and democratic values in all regions and where climate change, disinformation, terrorism, war and conflict, hate speech and xenophobia confront us in the starkest terms. Given these challenges we remain mindful of both the challenges and the opportunities that educators in varied contexts face.

Human rights education (HRE) supports UN Sustainable Development Goal 4. HRE has a vital role in maintaining hope and enabling people of all ages to reimagine a positive future. Children and young people experience barriers to democratic participation since they are not only excluded from formal political mechanisms and decision-making processes but have been the subject of government-led social media bans that threaten access to communication and information.

Any vision of a sustainable future necessarily includes ‘sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development’ (SDG 4.7). IAHRE 2027 invites contributions that build on and extend the focus of past conferences and on the fast-expanding HRE literature, both in HRER and other journals and books. IAHRE 2027 includes but is not limited to papers addressing:

Human rights curricula
Education for peace
Global citizenship education
Climate, environment and sustainable development
Migration, citizenship and rights
Children’s digital worlds
Human rights, intercultural and language learning
Worldviews and religion
Decolonising learning
Professional education and training
Children’s rights and child friendly schools

This call for papers invites both individual papers and proposals for symposia.

Individual paper requirements

Prepare an abstract of no more than 300 words, including paper title, your name(s), institutional affiliation(s) and contact email(s). Please indicate whether you would prefer to give an oral or a poster presentation. Abstracts should be sent, no later than Monday 19 October 2026 to: Professor Hugh Starkey h.starkey@ucl.ac.uk.

More information

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.