Founded in 2011, Human Rights Educators USA (HRE USA) is a growing network dedicated to building a culture of human rights by providing an innovative forum for HRE practitioners and supporters to learn, network, and exchange professional expertise and better serve the HRE community.
Over the past 15 years, we have developed relationships with HRE educators and organizations all across the country to further the field of human rights education in the United States. From regional chapters to fellowships, grants, and working groups, we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished together and look forward to continuing the work in the years to come!
In honor of our members, volunteers, and community, here are some highlights from the past 15 years ✨
2026
HRE USA celebrates its 15th anniversary and its growing network of human rights educators, advocates, and practitioners!
2025
Submitted two reports for the 50th Session of the Universal Periodic Review to the Human Rights Council: Protecting the Right to Education, Academic Freedom, and Human Rights Education in the U.S. with co-sponsors Amnesty International, Educators’ Institute for Human Rights, Human Rights Educators USA, and the Right to Learn Coalition, and Attacks on Academic Freedom: Columbia University and Beyond with co-sponsors Students of Human Rights and Education, Columbia University (SHRECU) and Human Rights Educators USA.
Received a grant from the Foundation for Systemic Change to expand the podcast’s reach and increase our advocacy and engagement efforts, including broadening youth involvement and collaborations.
Participated, with a coalition of civil society stakeholders, in The People’s Universal Periodic Review (of the U.S. record of human rights) in New York City, in response to the country not otherwise participating in the review.
Co-sponsored “American Agitators” film screening, reception and filmmaker discussion during the National Council of Social Studies Teachers conference in Washington, DC. The film celebrates the work of Fred Ross Sr, one of the most impactful change makers of the 20th century and shows how Fred Ross Sr. mobilized communities to challenge segregation, fight for voting rights, and empower labor movements.
Selected 2025 Youth in Action for Human Rights Awardees: Shivum Telang for the 2025 Individual Award and Vote16MD for the 2024 Organization Award.
Presented the 2025 Edward O’Brien HRE Awards to Dr. Pedro Jose Gonzalez Corona and The World As It Could Be.
2024
Submitted Input for the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education’s U.S. Country Visit. Members of the HRE USA team met with Special Rapporteur staff and offered assistance.
Held a pilot pre-K–12 Educators Professional Learning Community meet-up, an inaugural effort to help educators gain valued resources and support to enshrine human rights education into their practice.
Served as “expert consultants” on human rights education at the United Nations headquarters in New York City in April.
Offered a poster session on Human Rights Education Now! Podcast at the International Association for Human Rights Education (IAHRE) Conference at the University College London.
Celebrated the 35th Anniversary of The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) online November 20, 2024.
Selected 2024 Youth in Action for Human Rights Awardees: Pranav Raju for the 2024 Individual Award for his work to achieve affordable healthcare for all, especially persons living with access to insulin health challenges and Outside Connection for the 2024 Organization Award for its online platform that connects individuals returning home from incarceration with fair-chance jobs.
2023
Launched the HRE USA Podcast “Human Rights Education Now!” The podcast (1) informs a broader audience in the U.S. and internationally about human rights education stories, practices, related issues and theories, (2) expands awareness and knowledge about HRE USA and its programs, and (3) engages partner individuals, groups and organizations in changing the conversation about rights in the U.S. to one employing a human rights education lens.
Selected the first Youth in Action for Human Rights Awards to encourage a new generation of human rights activists. The Awards recognize youth (individual and group) who defend, advocate, and raise awareness about human rights in the United States. The 2023 individual awards are presented to two young activists, Reem Kamil Kirja, a student at Iowa City West High School in Iowa City, Iowa, and Clementine Causse, a student at Palisades Charter High School in Pacific Palisades, California. The 2023 group award is presented to Kittatinny Regional High School Holocaust and Genocide Resource Center in Kittatinny, NJ.
Hosted virtual celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights December 7, 2023. A full recording of the Human Rights Day Celebration event, including a reading of the UDHR in multiple languages, is on our Human Rights Educators USA YouTube channel.
Announces HRE USA’s Lifetime Achievement Award to honor Dr. William R. Fernekes.
Presented Dr. Alex Red Corn with the 2023 Edward O’Brien Human Rights Education Award.
2022
Hosted second year of Kirby Edmonds Summer Fellows, Veronica Bido, Hallie McRae, and Natalie Roach, who implemented projects to strengthen HRE USA’s community engagement and regional representatives’ network plus the first Giving Is Gorges fundraiser for this program. The Edmonds Fellows produced video reports about their experiences and impacts.
Hired a Growth Advisor, Kristina Eberbach, to develop a refined fundraising plan.
Hosted four HRE webinars led by members of the community on dialogue, music/creative expression, storytelling, and showcasing a new Water Rights & Human Rights curriculum toolkit.
Hosted first Summer Teaching Fellow, Julie Rinker, who conducted an audit of the online K-12 Library, providing recommendations for further improvement and content editing.
Co-sponsored with Salem State University the 2022 conference on Children’s Human Rights in the USA online June 22-24, 2022. The conference was 1.5 years in development and 60 speakers made presentations. HRE USA expanded its Children’s Rights Resource Library.
Announces its first Human Rights Educators USA 2022 Impact Award honoring the nearly 50 years of extraordinary contribution of the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) to human rights education in the United States and around the world.
Presented Susan Katz with the 2022 Edward O’Brien Human Rights Education Award.
2021
HRE USA becomes a Coalition Member in CivXNow and a Champion for Educating for American Democracy (EAD). As an EAD Champion, HRE USA develops, with EAD staff and support from EAD leadership, an educational brief, detailing the need for HRE as essential preparation to participate in “an inclusive, democratic society.” The joint HRE USA/EAD brief acknow-ledges: “A core purpose of the U.S. Constitution, according to the Preamble, is to ‘promote the general welfare.’ When that ‘general welfare’ is not equitably available to some members of society, threats to fundamental human rights are present and need to be resolved to realize the ideals of our democratic republic and its Constitutional democracy.”
The first three-tiered virtual HRE USA Training As Action Series (TAAS) is held for members, engaging more than 40 members and its first HRE USA Training Corps class of 15 members.
HRE USA awards the first Edmonds Summer Fellowships to Ashleigh Deno, Winnie Ho, and Danielle Lucksted, who produced video reports about their experiences and impacts.
HRE USA welcomes the first Research Scholar, Kaylee Bradford, to its team. She presents HRE USA’s first preservice teacher webinar on how preservice HRE is currently being taught in the United States and to what extent these courses incorporate ‘good practices’ recommended in the field.
HRE USA’s second annual virtual Human Rights Day Celebration in collaboration with the University and College Consortium for Human Rights Education (UCCHRE) is held on December 10, 2021 (video recording). The celebration also honors a decade of Human Rights Educators USA as a movement (2011-2021) along with the following award and grant recipients:
2021 Edward O’Brien Human Rights Education Award winners: Keith David Watenpaugh and Educators Institute for Human Rights (EIHR).
2021 Flowers Fund Grantees: Natalia Santos Orozco, Ph. D (University of Puerto Rico) and Michael Buckley, Ph. D & David Fletcher, Ph. D (Lehman Center for Peace & Social Justice).
UCCHRE honors its first Human Rights in Higher Education Awardees: Human Rights Education Review and the International Journal of Human Rights Education.
2020
The first new members webinar and slide deck are presented by Steering Committee members.
Your Vote, Your Voice Resource Collection and video are produced with organizational partners, The World As It Could Be, Human Rights Watch Student Task Force, and the National Council for the Social Studies Human Rights Education Community.
As part of our commitment to anti-racism and non-discrimination, HRE USA creates a Racial Justice Resource Collection to help educators engage their students on issues of racism through a human rights lens.
Human Rights Education – HR Treaties and HR Practice, Submission to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review of United States of America, Third Cycle 36th Session of the UPR Human Rights Council on May 2020 by HRE USA.
HRE USA’s 2020 O’Brien Human Rights Education Awards are presented to Pam Bruns and ACT Center for Disability Leadership.
HRE USA hosts its first virtual Human Rights Day Celebration on December 10, 2021, with video recording. Special thanks to keynote speaker, Loretta Ross, for her encouraging and reflective words of wisdom and to Uma Menon for her striking and vital poetry. The event also honors the 2020 Edward O’Brien Human Rights Education Award winners, Pam Bruns of Human Rights Watch Student Task Force and the ACT Center for Disability Leadership. The celebration also includes the video, “Voices of Hope: A UDHR Celebration”, a recitation of the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in different languages. The young leaders were connected with diverse HRE USA partner organizations, including ACT Center for Disability Leadership, Generation Human, and the Human Rights Watch Task Force.
2019
Every Child, Every Right & the 30th Anniversary Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Ratification Toolkit, Resources, and City Resolutions are curated on the HRE USA website in collaboration with the Human Rights Watch Student Task Force and the HRE USA Children’s Rights Working Group.
HRE USA honors Human Rights Watch Student Task Force with the 2019 Youth Engagement Award, in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
David Shiman is presented with the HRE USA’s Lifetime Achievement Award in November.
HRE USA’s 2019 Edward O’Brien Human Rights Education Awards are presented to Monica Curca and the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center.
2018
The HRE USA e-monthly newsletter is launched,
Human Rights Educators USA begins collaborating with Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) to gather feedback, field test, improve, and disseminate the Human Rights in National Security: An Educator’s Toolkit, published by AIUSA a year earlier. This free toolkit equips educators with the right tools for discussing post-9/11 national security and human rights issues in the classroom. Further resources were developed, including an introductory video and webinar to introduce the toolkit and provide training for educators on how to use it.
HRE USA and the University and College Consortium for Human Rights Education (UCCHRE) submitted the 2018 Report Submission to the UN Mid-Term Review of Recommendations from the 22nd Session of the Universal Periodic Review to the UN Human Rights Council highlighting the need for greater human rights education across higher education institutions in the United States. The report was submitted in anticipation of the U.S. mid-term review process for the Universal Periodic Review.
HRE USA submitted to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights pursuant to the Letter to Stakeholders from the Methodology, Education and Training Section of that Office Recommended target sectors, focus areas and thematic human rights issues for the fourth phase of the World Programme for Human Rights Education and Training.
On 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, HRE USA hosts a Human Rights Education Poster Contest —Poster Contest Gallery (hreusa.org).
HRE USA presents Karen Robinson and ARTE’s director Marissa Gutiérrez-Vicario with the 2018 Edward O’Brien Human Rights Education Awards.
2017
HRE USA and the University and College Consortium for Human Rights Education (UCCHRE) submit a stakeholder report to the UN Human Rights Council highlighting the need for greater human rights education across Higher Education institutions in the U.S. This report was part of the Universal Periodic Review mid-term U.S. review.
Nancy Flowers is presented with HRE USA’s 1st Lifetime Achievement Award in November 2017. In recognition of her co-founding HRE USA and significant human rights education contribution, HRE USA establishes The Flowers Fund to support emerging human rights education leaders and innovative ideas.
HRE USA’s 2017 Edward O’Brien Human Rights Education Awards are presented to Mariana Leal Ferreira and The Voice of Witness Education Program.
2016
HRE USA’s first annual report is produced on its 5th anniversary.
HRE USA’s 2016 Edward O’Brien Human Rights Education Awards are presented to Dr. Felisa Tibbitts and the Washington, D.C. Human Rights Learning Project’s director Jean-Louis Peta Ikambana.
2015
First-ever Stakeholders Report on the status of human rights education as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is published by HRE USA in cooperation with the US Human Rights Network.
The Edward O’Brien Human Rights Education Awards is established in memory of Ed O’Brien, pioneer human rights educator and valued member of HRE USA who died in 2015. The first O’Brien Award is presented to Kristi Rudelius-Palmer.
HRE USA lessons are published on the HRE USA website (and at this point, there are 20 model lessons on the website and integrated into the larger HRE USA K-12 HRE Library).
At the request of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, HRE USA leaders grant permission for 7 of the lessons to be mounted on that organization’s website. The lessons can be found on that UN site by searching the Library of Resources using Human Rights Educators USA as the search term.
The first Human Rights Here and Now Bulletin is published.
2014
The NCSS Board of Directors approves the Position Statement on Human Rights Education submitted to them by the NCSS HRE Community. The Statement is adopted September 19-20, 2014, and is in place when NCSS held its Annual Conference in Boston, MA. Felisa Tibbits (HRE USA co-founder and Steering Committee member of HRE USA) is the HRE Community’s sponsored speaker at that conference.
A team of New Jersey (NJ) educators convenes to develop the structure and content for this online HRE USA Curriculum Integration Guide. Led by retired NJ social studies supervisor and HRE USA Steering Committee member William R. Fernekes, the team agrees that the guide should consist of lessons and supporting materials that were linked to the NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards for Social Studies.
Emily Farell is hired as HRE USA’s first part-time Communications Specialist.
2013
HRE USA receives its first grant from the Puffin Foundation.
HRE USA Steering Committee designate the regional network as one of its priority goals.
HRE USA provides input into the Position Statement on Human Rights Education developed by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Human Rights Education Community (HREC) in 2013 after the NCSS Board of Directors (BOD) approves the development of such a statement and directs the NCSS HREC to develop a draft to submit to the board. HRE USA meets in Washington, DC at the time the NCSS BOD meets and authorizes the HREC to develop a position statement draft and invites the NCSS Board and key staff to a reception HRE USA was holding. At the reception, HRE USA members are encouraged by Board president Steve Armstrong to provide input to the HRE Community on the draft
2012
HRE USA becomes a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Transformative Action (CTA), an educational 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is legally and financially responsible for all our activities. Kirby Edmonds serves as HRE USA’s project director and liaison with CTA.
The first HRE USA Steering Committee is created and the first by-laws approved.
On December 10, 2012, HRE USA opens membership to interested educators and activists.
Regional representatives become an important part of HRE USA outreach efforts in local communities.
2011
Over seventy-five educators, students, higher education faculty, members of non-profit organizations, representatives from national teacher unions, and other stakeholders participated in the “Building a Human Rights Education Strategy for U.S. Schools” convening, which took place at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University on September 16-17, 2011. Human Rights Educators USA (HRE USA) was founded by these collective, inspirational leaders.
HRE USA became the first independent, multi-stakeholder network focused on promoting human rights education (HRE) in the United States.
HRE USA 