Donate today

As dehumanizing speech is normalized, misinformation is spread, and educators are under attack, the need for human rights education has become increasingly clear. Our Speak Truth to Power (STTP) team shows teachers how to foster rights-respecting learning environments that support students’ dignity and agency, encouraging them to identify as human rights defenders. STTP partners with teachers and schools to provide comprehensive teacher training and interactive, evidence-based educational materials that integrate social-emotional learning and give students access to a network of human rights defenders. This cultivates a unique whole-school approach that embraces a culture of respect for human rights.

This year we have launched a new human rights-centered school with the Sustainable Business Finance Academy, encouraged students to use film to become champions of change in their communities through our STTP Video Contest, and introduced a speaker series to connect high school students with human rights defenders from all over the world. And we’re not slowing down: Next year, our team plans to certify more schools to adopt a whole-school approach to human rights education and host the first international human rights education conference.

The generosity of our supporters makes all of this possible. This Giving Tuesday, we’re asking you to stand with us, our teachers, and our students—every gift, no matter what size, helps us create a world where human rights education is woven into the fabric of all educators’ pedagogy and young people are empowered to become human rights defenders.

The protection of civic space, including the right to dissent, is essential to upholding all other basic rights and freedoms, yet governments around the world are curtailing people’s rights to freedom of assembly, association, and expression, as well as their right to criticize government without fear of reprisal. In addition, in almost every country, ingrained marginalization of women and trans people has led to violence: abuse, rape, and murder. Too often these crimes are not even investigated, perpetuating the horrific cycle.

Around the globe, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights collaborates with local partners to protect civic space and to combat discrimination and social exclusion by holding States accountable for their actions and working tirelessly to set new international legal precedents to advance human rights. Here’s what we have accomplished this year:

• Xiomara Castro, president of Honduras, recognized state responsibility for the murder of Vicky Hernandez, a trans woman killed during the June 2009 coup; the subsequent investigation was characterized by negligence, discrimination, and a culture of impunity.

• We secured the release of Egyptian researcher Ahmed Samir Santawy, who had been arbitrarily detained by the Egyptian government on unfounded charges of “spreading false news.” Following our petition, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that the government had violated international human rights law. On July 30, 2022, Santawy was finally released from prison after the president issued a pardon.

• After years of work with our partners from CERJ in Guatemala, we will be fighting for truth, justice, and reparations in a historic case that will result in long-term impact. This fall, the Inter-American Commission referred the case of four human rights defenders disappeared by the Guatemalan army during the country’s internal armed conflict to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. We now move forward with the litigation of this case in the pursuit of justice for these brave defenders and their families.

Next year, our team will continue to push for structural change through strategic litigation across regions of Africa and Latin America in partnership with local civil society organizations. We will convene key stakeholders from regional human rights mechanisms to prompt more effective collaboration and strengthen their ability to protect human rights. We’ll also continue to support journalists, Indigenous leaders, and defenders of human rights and the environment, strengthening their capacity to protect their environment from threats posed by institutions seeking to profit off their land.

The generosity of our supporters makes all of this possible. This Giving Tuesday, we’re asking you to stand with us, and with the bravest human rights defenders in the world. Every gift, no matter the size, helps us create a world where governments are held accountable, civic space is protected, and women and girls are free from gender-based violence.

Today’s eligible voting population is the most diverse in U.S. history, but decision-makers don’t always reflect this reality. While the passion to create change is real, systemic exclusion and lack of opportunity create a ballot of candidates unresponsive to the needs of marginalized constituents, leading younger generations to feel powerless.

Enter John Lewis Young Leaders. We recently relaunched our longtime program to help young people drive change through advocacy and grassroots organizing in honor of the late congressman and civil rights icon. To dismantle the barriers that keep people from marginalized communities out of positions of power, John Lewis Young Leaders teaches leadership development, issue advocacy, civic engagement, and the principle of community organizing to advance human rights. Students in the program learn from a team of experts how to pursue justice in their communities and mobilize support for pressing issues. This summer, 50 campus leaders and ambassadors joined us for the first John Lewis Young Leaders Retreat, where they learned about housing equity, gender justice, cultural organizing, and taking social justice issues from grassroots to global.

Our students are gaining the skills necessary to excel as leaders and represent the country’s diverse constituency. With your help, we can continue this urgent work. We will expand our network of John Lewis Young Leaders chapters, continue to amplify student-led campaigns in support of democratic participation, and uplift the many Black, Brown, and queer voices of our Young Leaders network. Take a stand with us, and give today!

Mass incarceration is now an integral feature of the U.S. immigration system. On average, over 25,000 immigrants are in detention on any given day, held in a national network of federal facilities, private prisons, and converted county and local jails. Detained immigrants are subject to the same punitive conditions as convicted criminals. What’s more, the federal government has shifted the bulk of its detention capacity to rural areas across the country to isolate immigrants from help. Without intervention, the government will continue to violate the human rights of immigrants with impunity.

At Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, we work with frontline advocates to provide access to justice for the asylum seekers subjected to the inhumane ICE detention system, and to hold the government accountable. This year, along with our partners, we saw Cameroon designated for Temporary Protected Status, a hard-won victory that protected tens of thousands of Cameroonian asylum seekers from deportation. Our team sued the Department of Homeland Security to seek accountability for abuse of Black asylum seekers and testified before the United Nations Committee to End All Forms of Racial Discrimination regarding the systemic mistreatment of Black migrants at the border and beyond.

And we’re not slowing down: Next year, we’ll fight more court battles to uncover documentation of government policies and practices that target marginalized people.

All of this is made possible by the generosity of our supporters. This Giving Tuesday, we’re asking you to stand with us—every gift, no matter the size, helps us create a world that holds the U.S. government accountable for its treatment of immigrants, protects the right to asylum, and gives access to justice for those who need it most.