Advancing Racial and Gender Justice in the U.S.

Women and people of color in the United States face persistent discrimination and human rights abuses. The Human Rights Institute (HRI) uses human rights–based approaches to combat racial and gender discrimination. We partner with advocates and governments at the federal, state, and local levels to put equity and participation at the center of decision-making.

Project News

Project Publications

Human Rights Institute, with Children's Rights, Submit A Report to the UN Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

The Human Rights Institute hosted four events for students, faculty, and practitioners to foster ongoing dialogue and reflection on progress and challenges in achieving racial justice.

As part of her work with the Columbia Law Human Rights Clinic, Shannon Marcoux '21 J.D. discusses how COVID-19 is a disproportionately devastating disease for the Marshallese in Hawai’i

HRI calls on federal actors to shift course and protect historically marginalized communities that are bearing the brunt of the health impacts and economic harms of COVID-19.

Even as COVID-19 reveals deep inequities, the Trump administration continues to downplay the significance of economic and social rights, writes JoAnn Kamuf Ward, Director of Human Rights in the U.S. Project.

Human Rights Must Be at the Top of the Biden Agenda

HRI Shows Support for Human Rights at State and Local Levels

JoAnn Kamuf Ward files an amicus brief on behalf of CCR, Human Rights Watch, and LatinoJustice PRLDEF, arguing that a Florida law requiring local police to cooperate with ICE contravenes human rights principles.

HRI and IAOHRA testimony on impacts of federal policy on the right to housing gets quoted in U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report.

HRI co-hosts a talk titled "From Detention to Detention: Resisting the School-to-Prison Pipeline," featuring Seann Riley and Dekaila Wilson, Directors of the NYU Suspension Representation Project.

Economic and social rights are essential for equality and racial justice explains a joint submission to the Unalienable Rights by HRI and the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice.

HRI hosts a talk titled "Impacts of COVID-19 on Marginalized Groups: Implications for Policy and Advocacy."

HRI hosts a talk titled "COVID-19's Impact on Health, Housing, Water, and Sanitation: Socioeconomic Rights in Crisis," featuring Leilani Farha, UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing; Catherine Flowers, Founder, Center for Rural Enterprise and…

COVID-19: A Disproportionately Devastating Disease for the Marshallese in Hawai’i

JoAnn Kamuf Ward, HRI's Director of Human Rights in the U.S. Project, writes about human rights lessons from COVID-19, highlighting that equality requires economic and social rights protections.

HRI to host the Bringing Human Rights Home Lawyers’ Network’s (BHRH) Annual Human Rights in the U.S. Symposium/CLE on May 1st, entitled “Racial Justice, Restoration, and Inclusion: Human Rights Principles and Local Practice.”

Clare Skinner '20 LL.M. highlights that for women at risk of domestic violence, staying home due to COVID-19 is not safe.

It is vital to ensure that upcoming UN human rights reviews evaluate government responses to the current pandemic, stresses JoAnn Kamuf Ward in a Just Security blog.

HRI joined leading Human Rights organizations including the Center for Reproductive Rights and the ACLU for a briefing in D.C. Experts and advocates discuss the implications of the findings of the Special Rapporteur of Extreme Poverty and Human Rights'…

JoAnn Kamuf Ward writes on the relevance of human rights in the era of #MeToo, and how CEDAW can advance gender equality at the local level. This builds upon the Gender Equality Toolkit that HRI developed with the Leadership Conference and UNA-USA to…

Continuing advocacy to garner federal support for state and local human rights implementation, HRI and The Program on Human Rights in the Global Economy at Northeastern provided input to OHCHR to inform a report to the UN Human Rights Council later this…

After 89 US human rights groups, including HRI urged Secretary Pompeo to allow UN monitor on racism to visit US, Senator Menendez condemns US refusal to engage with UN human rights monitors in Guardian article.

This year's 16th CLE Symposium on Human Rights in the U.S. brought top lawyers, academics and advocates together in NYC to address 'Securing Fundamental Human Rights & Challenging Criminalization of Poverty.'

Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute Symposium Explores the Criminalization of Poverty and Efforts to Secure Fundamental Human Rights in the United States

"The United States—and many other wealthy nations—are facing an invisible but profound crisis of sanitation coverage that disproportionately affects poor and rural communities" write JoAnn Kamuf Ward (HRI) and Inga T. Winler (ISHR).

U.S. Secretary of State launched the Trump administration’s new “Commission on Unalienable Rights.” The commission is more likely to promote an anti-rights agenda, warns article co-authored by HRI Co-Faculty Director Sarah Knuckey.

The State Department’s new commission [on unalienable rights] represents a right-wing attack on America’s human rights traditions, warn HRI Faculty Co-Director Sarah Knuckey, and co-authors Margaret Sattherwaite and Jayne Huckerby.

HRI joins more than 400+ foreign policy, human rights, civil liberties, and faith leaders, scholars, and organizations in sounding alarm over new Trump Administration Commission on Unalienable Rights, calling for its dissolution.

The Institute hosts a meeting with UN Special Rapporteur on Migrants, Felipe Gonzalez, and members of the Bringing Human Rights Home Lawyers’ Network.

HRI's Human Rights in the U.S. Project contributes to reports on the right to sanitation and state and local implementation of human rights, in preparation for the 2020 Universal Periodic Review of the U.S.

2019

Advancing Racial Justice and Human Rights: Rights-Based Strategies for the Current Era

2018

Comment in Response to Proposed Rulemaking: Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds

2018

IAOHRA Gender Equity Toolkit

2017

Gender Equity Through Human Rights: Local Efforts to Advance the Status of Women and Girls in the United States

2016

Human Rights Recommendations to the United States: A Desk Reference for State and Local Human Rights Agencies

2015

New Human Rights Institute Report on Birmingham, Alabama Human Rights Dialogue and Efforts to Promote and Protect Human Rights in Cities Across the United States

2015

Bringing Human Rights Home: The Birmingham Mayor’s Office Human Rights Dialogue

2015

Federal Outreach & Mechanisms to Ensure Human Rights Implementation & the Federal, State and Local Levels

2014

The Need for Comprehensive Federal Outreach & Mechanisms to Support State & Local Implementation of the Convention

2014

Using Human Rights Assessments in Local Governance: A Toolkit for State and Local Human Rights and Human Relations Commissions

2014

Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault in the United States: A Human Rights Based Approach & Practice Guide

2014

The Need for Effective Federal Outreach and Mechanisms to Coordinate and support Federal, State and Local Implementation of The Convention

2013

Closing the Gap: The Federal Role in Respecting and Ensuring Human Rights at the State and Local Level

2012

International Human Rights are Taking Hold in the U.S. States, Citites and Towns

2012

Bringing Human Rights Home: How State and Local Governments Can Use Human Rights to Advance Local Policy

2011

Implementing Recomendations from the Universal Periodic Review: A Toolkit for State & Local Human Rights & Human Relations Commissions

2011

Gender Justice in the Americas: A Transnational Dialogue on Violence, Sexuality, Reproduction, and Human Rights

2010

Human Rights and Domestic Violence: An Advocacy Manual

2010

State and Local Human Rights Agencies: Recommendations for Advancing Opportunity and Equality Through an International Human Rights Framework

2008

Human Rights, Social Justice and State Law: A Manual for Creative Lawyering with Supplementary Materials

'By Some Other Means': Considering the Executive's Role in Fostering Subnational Human Rights Compliance

Despite laws that prohibit discrimination based on race and gender, the existing U.S. domestic legal framework has failed to foster equality and deliver justice. Federal and local laws narrowly define discrimination, and available remedies fail to address systemic marginalization and discrimination.

HRI’s work seeks to advance dignity, equality, and well-being regardless of identity, and to promote government accountability when violations occur. We provide technical assistance to local governments seeking to promote and protect human rights, work with UN experts to expose gaps in rights’ protections, and engage in strategic litigation.

Our work to bring human rights home in the United States includes:

International and federal advocacy: HRI partners with lawyers and grassroots organizations to challenge policies that harm rightsholders, including migrants and immigrants, individuals living in poverty, and youth involved in the criminal legal system. We do advocacy at the United Nations, in the U.S. Congress, and in regional and domestic courts.
Grassroots capacity building: HRI designs resources and convenings to promote awareness of advocacy strategies, legal developments, and pathways to racial and gender justice.
Technical assistance to local governments: We work closely with state and local human rights agencies to develop expertise on strategies to respond to structural discrimination and assess local compliance with human rights norms, as well as to secure federal resources and support for human rights monitoring.

Impact

In 2021, working with the Center for Constitutional Rights, the ACLU, and the US Human Rights Network, HRI secured human rights commitments from 56 local government representatives, and our gender-equity advocacy contributed to Los Angeles County’s decision to integrate global human rights norms into law.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has used our work to show how the federal government can ensure fair housing.
In the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, HRI joined with more than 600 organizations and individuals to call on the UN to launch a special inquiry into systemic police violence in the U.S., resulting in a targeted report by the UN on systemic discrimination and police violence.
As a result of our advocacy, since 2014, the U.S. State Department has continuously increased the participation of state and local governments in reviews of the U.S. Human Rights record and has continued to explore how to strengthen human rights implementation domestically.