Justice Defenders Program
Supporting human rights defenders around the world who face retaliation for their work.
Center for Human Rights
Mobilizing lawyers to defend threatened advocates, protect vulnerable communities, and hold governments accountable under law
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The Latest
Under Fire: How Lawyers Who Defend Journalists Are Being Targeted
During this month’s World Press Freedom Day events, much of the world’s attention rightly focused on the escalating threats against journalists worldwide. From the rise of artificial intelligence and digital surveillance to mounting physical and legal threats, independent media is increasingly under siege. Yet as ‘lawfare’ against journalists intensifies and grows more complex, it’s crucial to spotlight another essential defender of press freedom: the lawyers who defend journalists under attack.
Read the blog - Here
American Legal Profession under Attack: Lessons from Abroad
For this year's Law Day, ABA CHR wrote a blog discussing the lessons learned from its documentation of attacks on the legal profession abroad, in light of recent attacks on the rule of law and the independence of the legal profession in the United States.
Read - here
Freedom of Association in Ecuador: Recommendations for Strengthening Enforcement and Legal Reform
This report - published in both English and Spanish - was borne out of two fact-finding investigations, as collaborations between CHR and local groups, which explored challenges related to unionization and workers' rights. Our research reveals an anti-union national context, illustrates the prevalence and impunity for tactics undertaken by employers against unionization efforts, exposes how the current regulatory environment enables these practices, and reveals the necessity of legal reform in Ecuador to better protect workers’ right to freedom of association. This report is the culmination of CHR's program under Open Society Foundations on Freedom of Association in Ecuador.
Read the report - Here
Pursuing Accountability for the Arms Trade: A Primer on European and UK Laws and Mechanisms
The primer critically examines the regulatory frameworks, processes and practices (judicial and non-judicial) available to restrain arms sales from the United Kingdom and European Union to countries where they are used in repression to commit serious violations of international law.
Read - The PrimerCHR’s Work
Reports, Articles & Publications
View the Center's materials relating to human rights violations, rule of law, and governmental accountability around the world.
Eleanor Roosevelt Prize for Global Human Rights Advancement
With the blessing of the Roosevelt family, CHR in 2018 established the annual Eleanor Roosevelt Prize for Global Human Rights Advancement to recognize persons and organizations having a positive, enduring, and global impact in advancing the principles set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Eleanor Roosevelt championed.
CHR: A History
Founded in February 2001, CHR celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2021. This History tells the circuitous tale of CHR’s evolution from one man’s idea, to a small group’s adopted cause, to a new staff’s shared mission, to a multi-faceted defender of human rights and a just rule of law around the world.