Category: News and Updates

The Master of Science in Human Rights at Binghamton University offers human rights approaches to a variety of issues including education, health, violence, children, family, poverty, incarceration, immigration, and the political economy.Students will develop competencies in community organizing, social innovation and program evaluation as well as professional skills for working in human rights organizations at the local, regional, national and international levels.

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

Are you a youth advocate or a frontline journalist? Do you know someone with the drive and gifts to make a difference?
The HART Prize for Human Rights celebrates diverse voices and perspectives. With your creativity and sensitivity, we want to bring human rights into the light. The competition is free to enter, and runs from March 16th to May 15th.

Youth

The creative and essay categories are open to 11-25 year olds. The brief is simple: we’re looking for clear and thoughtful submissions about a forgotten conflict or human rights issue that does not have mainstream attention. Find out more.

Journalism

We’re thrilled to launch a new category spotlighting frontline journalists living and working in Nigeria. If you’re a journalist working under extreme pressure who reports with precision, courage, and care, we want to hear from you. Submit an article or blog about a hidden crisis or human rights abuse, or nominate a colleague. We maintain an urgent focus on the Middle Belt. Find out more.

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

In honor of Women’s History Month, each day Social Justice Books features a children’s book we recommend to highlight grassroots women’s history in the United States. See our post online and follow Social Justice Books on Instagram to follow each day.

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

Woven Teaching is excited to share our latest edition of Human Rights Beyond the Headlines! This month’s topic: Migration is a Human (Rights) Story.

Created to support educators in helping young people navigate the current events that impact their lives, Human Rights Beyond the Headlines will provide background information about key current events and strategies for discussing them with young people, including how to understand them through the wider lens of justice and human rights.

Migration is a Human (Rights) Story

Migration, the movement of people away from their home to somewhere else, is a fundamental part of human history. Migration has always happened. But why do people move from home to somewhere else–crossing cities and borders, countries and continents?Everyone needs and deserves to be safe. When people feel unsafe, mistreated, or vulnerable, they sometimes look for options to live elsewhere. When people don’t have educational and work opportunities to build a decent life, or when their families and loved ones live in other places, they make the difficult decision to leave home. Often, the journeys are dangerous, difficult, and uncertain–but they go anyway.

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

This year’s theme is Creative Resistance: Artivism, Technology and the Right to Dissent

Virtual and In-Person Registration Link

Hosted by the Human Rights Center at the University of Dayton, SPHR26 will take place April 9–11, 2026, as a hybrid conference, welcoming both in-person and virtual participation. Each day features a keynote, plenaries, performances, workshops and concurrent roundtable discussions. There will be exhibits set up both physically and virtually throughout the conference for participants to engage with.

The Social Practice of Human Rights (SPHR) Conference convenes scholars, artists, activists, organizers and practitioners to examine how human rights are imagined, challenged and advanced in practice. In 2026, SPHR gathers at a moment of profound global tension and possibility; when dissent is increasingly criminalized, technologies both enable and constrain resistance, and creative practices have become vital tools for survival, solidarity and transformation.

SPHR26 explores how artivism, digital technologies, and creative forms of protest shape contemporary struggles for human dignity and justice. Across disciplines and movements, participants will interrogate how creative resistance confronts repression, mobilizes communities and reclaims public space; while also grappling with the risks, exclusions and ethical dilemmas that accompany these practices.

Of particular interest to you will be our workshop on human rights education sponsored by the University and College Consortium for Human Rights Education (UCCHRE). The workshop will be held on April 10 from 10:30-12:30 EST. More information below. Mark your calendars!

Creating higher education spaces for human rights learning, voice, resilience and collective action in a turbulent world

Higher education, rights and democracy are threatened around the world, including in the United States. Higher education actors and institutions play an essential role in defending rights and shaping a democratic society.

During this workshop, we will examine rights-based academic freedom, activist educators’ pedagogies, and human rights changemaking innovations related to human rights education. 

We  will explore ways in which institutions, academics and students are engaging in and supporting human rights action in response to current threats. What shifts have occurred in the field of human rights learning and how can the University and College Consortium for Human Rights Education (UCCHRE) members support each other, including through direct action?

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

Stories of women who rise, reimagine, and rebuild — speaking truth, challenging systems, creating boldly, and shaping communities with resilience and vision.

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

Our hearts go out to the schoolchildren, teachers, families, and all those whose lives are being torn apart by the illegal and immoral war launched by the United States and Israel against the people of Iran. History teaches that the U.S. government cares nothing about democracy and human rights in the Middle East.

To help young people understand these events in context, teach about the 1953 U.S.- and Britain-orchestrated coup d’etat that toppled Iran’s democratically elected government. The Shah then took power and signed over 40 percent of Iran’s oil fields to U.S. companies.

Textbooks either ignore or minimize the impact of this history of imperialism, as high school teacher Ursula Wolfe-Rocca wrote in a critique:

American Journey says the CIA “backed” a coup in Iran; in reality that “backing” involved Kermit Roosevelt, CIA agent and grandson of Theodore, arriving in Tehran with suitcases full of cash to manufacture an opposition movement by hiring people to protest, bribing newspaper editors to print misinformation (real fake news), and creating a sham communist party to act as a straw man. American Journey says the Shah “cooperated” with the United States; it leaves out that such “cooperation” was defined by Iran’s purchase of billions of dollars of weapons from the United States as well as the CIA’s training of Savak, the Shah’s secret police force infamous for its human rights violations. Continue reading.

The same disinformation is perpetuated by politicians and corporate media today. For accurate news coverage, we recommend Democracy Now! Many of the interviews work well in the classroom.

For lessons on media literacy, find student-friendly articles at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. Norman Solomon’s book War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine and interviews offer clear analysis.>> See all resources 

• Teaching Activities (Free) Whose “Terrorism”?
• Teaching Guides Teaching About the Wars
• Teaching Guides Challenge Islamophobia
• Disguising Imperialism: How Textbooks Get the Cold War Wrong and Dupe Students
• Digital Collections The Costs of War

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

WEBINAR: Leveraging Global Human Rights to Protect our Cities 

Wednesday April 8, 6:00-7:15PM Eastern/ 3:00PM Pacific

Today in the United States we face a human rights emergency. The deployment of National Guard and ICE agents in major cities usurps the basic rights of residents as well as local authority. Rights to free speech and assembly are under attack, and courts are failing to hold leaders accountable to the law. The international human rights system can provide a court of appeal for situations like this. This panel of legal experts, advocates, and scholars will discuss how international human rights can be a tool for cities and local movements serving as the front line defenders of human rights. REGISTER HERE

Panelists:Lisa Borden, Deputy Federal Policy Director, Southern Poverty Law Center; Jamil Dakwar, Director, Human Rights Program, American Civil Liberties Union; Amy Berquist, Associate Program Director, International Justice Program, The Advocates for Human Rights (Minneapolis)Faciltiator: Manisha Desai, Director, Center for Changing Systems of Power at Stony Brook University & Board member, Human Rights Cities Alliance

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