University of Minnesota
Human Rights Program
hrp@umn.edu
612-626-7947


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People

Leadership

Barbara A. Frey

Barbara A. Frey
Director,
Human Rights Program
freyx001@umn.edu

Barbara A. Frey is Director of the Human Rights Program in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota. The Program, established in 2001, provides academic, research and internship opportunities for students in the field of international human rights.

Frey is well known as an international human rights teacher, advocate and scholar. She served from 2000-2003 as an alternate member of the U.N. Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, a body of independent experts who advise the United Nations on human rights policy. From 2002-2006 Frey served as Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission to conduct a study on the issue of preventing human rights abuses committed with small arms and light weapons. From 1985 through 1996 Frey was Executive Director of Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights. She is a co-convenor of the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights, a network of 44 organizations working to promote research and advocacy on human rights issues.

Frey is the recipient of the 2008 Don and Arvonne Fraser Award from the Advocates for Human Rights. She received the 2008 Outstanding Faculty Community Service Award from the University of Minnesota. She received the first Iustitia et Lex award from the University of St. Thomas Law School in 2003. She was named the 2001 Myra Bradwell Award winner by Minnesota Women Lawyers for promoting the interests of women in the legal profession and in the community. She is the immediate past Chair of the St. Paul-Minneapolis Committee on Foreign Relations. Frey attended the University of Notre Dame (BA, 1978) and the University of Wisconsin Law School (JD, 1982). She worked as an associate lawyer at Dorsey & Whitney in Minneapolis from 1983-85.

Kathryn Sikkink

Kathryn Sikkink
Human Rights Program Advisory Board Chair,
sikkink@umn.edu

Kathryn Sikkink is a Regents Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. She received her B.A. from the University of Minnesota, and has a M.A. and a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.

Professor Sikkink works on the role of ideas and norms in the international system and in domestic politics, with emphasis on the origins and effects of international human rights ideas and regimes. She is especially interested in how transnational social movements and networks have developed new norms and pressured states and international organizations to change practices. Her current research focuses on the dramatic increase in international, foreign, and domestic human rights trials in the world.

Professor Sikkink's publications include Ideas and Institutions: Developmentalism in Brazil and Argentina; Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics, (co-authored with Margaret Keck), winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order (1999) and the International Studies Association's Chadwick Alger Award for best work in the area of international organization (1999); and Mixed Messages: U.S. Human Rights Policy and Latin America (2004).

Program Staff

Rochelle Hammer

Rochelle Hammer
Coordinator
hamm0229@umn.edu

Rochelle Hammer has been with the Program since 2001, first as a student assistant and most recently as Coordinator. Her work with the Program is currently focused on coordinating the efforts of the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights—a network of more than 40 U.S.—based advocacy organizations and academic centers collaborating to promote and protect human rights—to address human rights issues of concern in the Midwest region. Hammer has a BA in Global Studies from the University of Minnesota and is currently working on a Nonprofit Management Graduate Certificate offered through the University’s College of Continuing Education.

Advisory Board

Michael Barnett barne293@umn.edu Stassen Chair, Professor, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs & Political Science
Elizabeth Boyle boyle014@umn.edu Professor, Dept. of Sociology
Karen Brown kbt@umn.edu Associate Director, Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change
Evelyn Davidheiser edavidh@umn.edu Director, Institute for Global Studies
Vinay Gidwani gidwa002@umn.edu Professor, Dept. of Geography
Oren Gross gross084@umn.edu Professor, Law School
Patricia Hampl hampl@umn.edu Professor, Dept. of English
Sally Kenney kenne030@umn.edu Professor, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
Michael McCormick McCormick.Michael@dorsey.com Partner, Dorsey & Whitney Law Firm
Fionnuala Ní Aoláin niaol002@umn.edu Professor, Law School
Luis Ramos-Garcia laramosg@umn.edu Professor, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese
Joachim J. Savelsberg savel001@umn.edu Professor, Dept. of Sociology
Kathryn Sikkink sikkink@polisci.umn.edu Board Chair & Professor, Dept. of Political Science
David Weissbrodt weiss001@umn.edu Director, Human Rights Center and Professor, Law School
Eric Weitz weitz004@umn.edu Professor and Chair, Dept. of History