About the ACLU's Human Rights Program

In 2004, the ACLU created a Human Rights Program (HRP) specifically dedicated to holding the U.S. government accountable to universal human rights principles in addition to rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. HRP is part of a reemerging movement of U.S. based organizations that uses the international human rights framework in domestic rights advocacy.

HRP uses human rights strategies to complement existing ACLU legal and legislative advocacy and to advance social justice in the following areas:

• national security
• immigrants' rights
• women's rights
• racial justice
• death penalty
• children’s rights

For this end, HRP conducts human rights education and training sessions, and engages in advocacy and litigation before U.S. courts and international bodies, including the United Nations and regional human rights mechanisms (such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights).

By invoking international human rights sources, the ACLU has been able to make advances when previous concerns were dismissed by the courts. Having adopted an integrative approach to human rights advocacy that incorporates community organizing and coalition building, in ad­dition to utilizing litigation and legisla­tive strategies, HRP is strengthening its work to advance human rights in the United States.

Learn more about our efforts here.

Human Rights Program Staff
Jamil Dakwar, Director
Steven M. Watt, Senior Staff Attorney
Chandra Bhatnagar, Staff Attorney
Jennifer Turner, Human Rights Researcher
Alice Farmer, Aryeh Neier Fellow
Nahal Zamani, Advocacy Associate
Aron Cobbs, Legal Assistant

Email humanrights@aclu.org for more information.