WITNESS’ multi-year collaboration with Elder Justice Coalition and the National Coalition of the Aging has resulted in a video and fact sheets on elder abuse and the human rights of the aged.  Last week, Link TV featured the video on air, and has posted it on its website.  To host a screening of the video (featured below), please visit WITNESS’ website.  For information on the human rights of the aged, read the fact sheet composed as a companion piece to this video.  The U.S. Human Rights Fund is proud to be among the supporters of this important work.

This week several grantees of the U.S. Human Rights Fund will be participating in the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, Michigan. The U.S. Social Forum (USSF) is an opportunity for social justice advocates to network and develop strategies for advancing human rights.  Here are some notable activities:

• The US Human Rights Network is coordinating a Human Rights Track at the US Social Forum. They will sponsor a “Human Rights Tent” for networking and additional educational programming. The tent will be located in the USSF Village near Cobo Hall, the main site of the USSF.

• NESRI is helping to organize two workshops–one on housing, the other on health–as well as a People’s Movement Assembly titled, “What the Health Happened?”

• Power U is sponsoring three activities, including two workshops and a People’s Movement Assembly. Topics covered will include childbirth education, the Right to the City campaign, and the School to Prison Pipeline, respectively.

• The Poverty Initiative is hosting a workshop titled “A New and Unsettling Force: Reigniting Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign.”

For a complete list of human rights-related activities at the USSF produced by the US Human Rights Network, please click here.

To view the full USSF program and find a complete list of workshops on all topics, click here.

Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute has opened registration for their annual human rights CLE, scheduled for June 4, 2010, from 9:00 am -3:30 pm at Skadden Arps, in New York City.

This year’s program, “Ethics and Domestic Human Rights Lawyering,” will explore whether and how adoption of a human rights framework in the domestic advocacy setting shapes a lawyer’s ethical responsibilities. The CLE is co-sponsored by the Center for Constitutional Rights, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, and the Center for Reproductive Rights.

A complete agenda, CLE credit information, and a registration link are available via the website.

Register by May 28th.

Jamil Dakwar of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Christina Finch of Amnesty International, USA co-wrote an op-ed piece for the Huffington Post entitled: “Human Rights, Time to Practice What We Preach.”

• Read the piece here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamil-dakwar/human-rights-time-to-prac_b_555631.html

Measuring and Communicating about Progress in Domestic Human Rights Work

This one hour session led by Innovation Network, the USHRF evaluation partner and TA provider,  will  help organizations that do human rights advocacy and/or technical assistance understand how to measure and talk powerfully about their interim successes with stakeholders and funders.  It will discuss how to determine appropriate and meaningful short, intermediate, and long term outcomes that will help make the  case for domestic  human rights  work.  Participants who are grantees of the Fund will also learn how to access one-on-one technical assistance to do more in depth work developing meaningful outcomes and data collection tools.

Please RSVP to Angela Kahres at akahres [at] publicinterestprojects.org

The U.S. Human Rights and Foreign Policy UPR cluster group will examine U.S. foreign policy and extra-territorial relationships by highlighting the human rights records of countries receiving substantial political, economic, military and diplomatic support from the US.  If you are interested in joining this report, please contact report leader, Marjorie Cohn, at marjorielegal@gmail.com

For a full list of cluster reports to be submitted as part of the Universal Periodic Review process, please visit: http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddpnzvc4_1hsbn4sfk

On March 20, 2010, CNN will air its special report on the environmental and health crisis in Mossville, Louisiana.    For several months Advocates for Environmental Human Rights and Mossville Environmental Action Now have been working with CNN producers to prepare this investigative report.  A Mossville human rights petition was filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.  The petition challenges the U.S. Environmental Regulatory System for allowing the violation of Mossville residents’ rights to life, health, freedom from racial discrimination, and privacy as each relates to the security of one’s home.

• Read the petition.
• Read CNN’s advance story.



There will be a community-wide Human Rights Summit in Eugene, Oregon on April 10.   The event, co-sponsored by the City of Eugene and the Community Coalition for Advancement of Human Rights, will address human rights principles as expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and their relevance to local human rights issues.  Participants will have the opportunity to explore ways in which individuals, groups, and institutions can work together to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights at the local community level.  The city of Eugene is known among human rights advocates for its Human Rights City Project and was featured in the recently released USHRF report, Perfecting Our Union: Human Rights Success Stories from Across the United States.

There is a $10 event registration fee (lunch is included). A free preview event will be held Thursday, April 8.

• Register
• Visit the website for more information

The U.S. Human Rights Fund has a Twitter account.

Are you an advocate, grantee, donor?  Or would you like to find out more about our work?

Follow us on Twitter!  We keep abreast of the latest developments in human rights in the U.S. and around the world.

Our tag: ushumanrtsfund

Or, click here to follow.

The U.S. Human Rights Fund launched its Case Study report Perfecting Our Union: Human Rights Success Stories from Across the United States. The launch event was held at the Fund’s new space at Public Interest Projects. Over 65 donors, advocates, and grantees were in attendance. The report offers definitive proof that the use of human rights values, standards, and strategies can strengthen organizing and improve lives within the U.S.

Launch events will be held across the country.

Download a free PDF of the report here.
Or contact Angela Kahres to request a copy.