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• Midwest Coalition for Human Rights • Small Arms and Light Weapons Research • Human Rights in Practice Lecture Series • Graduate Minor in Human Rights • Human Rights Resources on the Web • Midwest Coalition for Human Rights • Download our Brochure and Poster
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Sign up to receive emails of upcoming HRP events! Upcoming Events Fast Food Nation: Do You Want Lies With That? Join our Campaign: Send a Postcard, an e-mail or call (202-720-3631) Mike Johanns, the Secretary of Agriculture, asking him to Slow Down the Line. Colin Covert's review in the Star Tribune. "Fast Food Nation" is "Syriana" on a sesame seed bun, "Traffic" with a side of fries, a dense unhappy meal that takes a bit of chewing to digest..." Fast Food Nation Official Website
The first day of the conference, Friday April 21, 2006, featured presenters including national and international experts, including Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn (Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography), Ambassador John Miller of the U.S. State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chairman and CEO of the Carlson Companies, as well as leaders of many well-respected NGOs in the field. The conference was attended by hundreds of people who are interested in this issue. The Second day of the conference was a small "experts session" during which many of the presenters and others attending the first day of the conference worked in a more intimate setting to devise methods to combat child sex trafficking. Videos of Conference Proceedings Students involved with the Human Rights Program through Barbara Frey's "Human Rights Internship Class" have been working with the Hmong community to bring a blatant violation of human rights to local and international attention. Students have assisted the Hmong community in many ways, working with local leaders to put their learning in the classroom to good use in the community.
Highlights include:
For more information click here In Fall 2004, the Human Rights Program received a two-year grant from the Otto Bremer Foundation to use its position as a liaison between the academy and the human rights movement to support linkages among domestic and international human rights advocates on certain key human rights issues in the United States. The Program’s focus on the United States aims to promote the human rights framework as the organizing principle for evaluating regional and local issues such as detention practices, discrimination, and violations of economic, social and cultural rights. The Program will also support student research and internships on U.S.-based human rights issues. The U.S. has an enormous impact on whether human rights are respected in the world today. By giving national security interests priority over human rights at home and abroad, the U.S.’s ‘war on terrorism’ has affected the rights of people everywhere. At an international level, there has been a shift of U.S. policy away from multilateral diplomacy and toward a unilateral projection of military power in the world. At a domestic level, government funding for social services, education and health care has been cut to new lows. The climate for working on international human rights issues has been profoundly affected by these U.S. positions. The legitimacy and credibility of all U.S.-based organizations have been threatened by the violations of human rights that are taking place on our own soil or that are being carried out by U.S. agents on foreign soil. In considering, then, the appropriate direction for the international human rights movement over the next decade, we must remain conscious that Northern-initiated projects, policies and programs may be treated by actors in the global South with suspicion if not outright hostility. Instead, the U.S. human rights community is being asked with increasing frequency why we can’t get our own house in order. The uncovering of cases of torture and degrading treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantánamo Bay only serves to underline the need for the U.S.-based human rights movement to focus much of its work at home. In light of the decline in the U.S.’s moral leadership in human rights, it is a critical time to support grassroots education in the U.S. civil society on human rights standards and to monitor the U.S. government’s compliance with its international human rights obligations. Coordination of documentation on U.S. violations and public education about these violations is particularly important at this time. While threats to human rights in the U.S. have generated more authentic alliances between domestic civil rights organizations, like the ACLU, and international human rights organizations. Still, the very language of rights – in which local issues are addressed as “civil” rights and international issues as “human” rights – illustrates the gap between these two advocacy communities. The international human rights framework can serve to unite communities of human rights activists in the U.S. at a time when there is a need to act with one voice against the retrenchment of rights and freedoms here at home. “Human Rights at Home” will use the international human rights framework to develop expertise, tactics, and leadership on critical U.S.-based issues. Objectives include:
Midwest Coalition for Human Rights Mission: The Midwest Coalition for Human Rights is a network of human rights organizations collaborating to promote and protect international human rights both in the United States and abroad. Midwest Coalition for Human Rights Members American Friends Service Committee -- Great Lakes Region To learn more, visit the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights website. Small Arms & Light Weapons: Implications for Human Rights The human cost of the proliferation of small arms and light weapons has been increasingly evident in the post-Cold War era. In the past decade, there has been significant diplomatic activity to strengthen international laws that curb the transfer of small arms, culminating in the July 2001 UN Conference on the "Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons." Despite these political and diplomatic activities, little attention has been given to the human rights implications of arms proliferation. Petition to President Bush regarding the investigation of torture and acts of cruel or degrading treatment If you were unable to sign the petition, but would like to add your endorsement, please contact Senators Coleman and Dayton to tell them that you support the U of M petition regarding the Investigation of Torture, and that you would like the Senators to bring the petition to the attention of President Bush. A written message to the President reiterating the points in the petition would also be very helpful. CONTACT INFORMATION: Senator Norm Coleman Senator Mark Dayton Human Rights in Practice (HRIP) Lecture Series
HRP co-sponsers the annual International Women's Day celebration in March. Inspired by the 1995 U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, the local celebration was designed to celebrate the diversity of Minnesota women and to increase understanding and tolerance of the different backgrounds of women living in our community. Workshops for the day are selected to increase recognition of the relevance of international women’s human rights on the local level and to draw attention to the twelve areas of concern articulated in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The International Women's Day website is maintained by Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights and can be accessed here. • Hosted policy discussions between activists and academics on topics including “Human Rights in the Post-9/11 World” and “The Effect of U.S. Unilateralism on Human Rights Advocacy.” • Sponsored International Women’s Day 2004, 2005, and 2006 an event that brings together more than 400 students, faculty, human rights activists and the public for a day of workshops and performances on women’s human rights issues |
Human Rights Program
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The Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota Law School maintains a calendar of human rights related events, many of which the Human Rights Program co-sponsors. This calendar can be accessed here: 
On April 21-22, 2006, the Human Rights Program hosted a conference that explored the relationship between tourism and child sex trafficking and addressed the human rights implications of this nexus. The conference, entitled “United Front for Children: Global Efforts to Combat Sexual Trafficking in Travel and Tourism” was meant to engage four sectors: non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academia, government agencies and corporations, each of which approaches the issue of child trafficking differently.
