The Graduate School

Postdoctoral Affairs

Experts@Minnesota

Electronic Grants Management System (EGMS)

Academic Health Center Research

UM-Crookston Research

UM-Duluth Research

UM-Morris Research

When the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center (HRC) opened in December 1988 on the fortieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, only two other human rights programs existed in the United States. Law School professor David Weissbrodt, who founded the Center and continues as co-director, has seen many changes since then.

"In 1988, Eastern Europe and several nations of Asia suffered under Russian dominance and various forms of dictatorship," says Weissbrodt. "The liberation of many of those nations since the end of the Cold War has represented a major improvement in human rights."

He should know. In addition to his work at the University of Minnesota, Weissbrodt played a leading role in establishing the Center for Victims of Torture, Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, the International Human Rights Internship Program, and the first Amnesty International groups in Minnesota and Washington, D.C. He has also served as an officer or board member of Amnesty International, Readers International, and the International League for Human Rights. From 1996 to 2003 he served as a member of the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and was elected Chairperson of the Sub-Commission for the year 2001-02. He also was designated the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the rights of non-citizens for 2000-03.

Locally, he was awarded the Twin Cities International Citizen Award in 1998, and in 2003 Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights gave him its annual Human Rights Award. In 1999 the University also honored Weissbrodt by awarding him with the Outstanding Community Service Award. And this past summer he was named a Regents Professor, the highest level of recognition given to faculty at the University. Weissbrodt is the first law professor ever to receive that honor.

While he is involved in many human rights activities, Weissbrodt said, "I devote most of my public service energy and time to building the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center so that that we can serve the University, state, national, and global human rights communities."

A big-hitter on Google

The HRC's programs include applied human rights research, education tools, field and training opportunities, online resources, learning communities and partnerships, and a human rights and peace store. These make the Center an essential resource for human rights advocates, monitors, students, educators, and volunteers-the people who work to improve human rights in our local, national, and international communities.

The most visible activity of the Center is the online Human Rights Library (www.umn.edu/humanrts) with over 23,000 human rights treaties, jurisprudence, and other core human rights documents translated into Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. An indication of the significance of the library can be found by doing a simple Google search. Type "human rights," and the HRC library is one of the first 10 links, along with links to the U.N. and Amnesty International. Type "University of Minnesota," and the library is frequently the second link, just after the main page for the University.

Each month the site receives over 2 million requests from users in roughly 150 nations. Most site users look for educational materials and training applications, but lawyers and advocates use treaties and U.N. proceedings on the site to help build their cases, and researchers use the site as a primary source.

"Since World War II and the experience of the Holocaust, a varied and diverse community of states have developed an impressive body of international human rights treaties and other norms," says Weissbrodt. "The Human Rights Library plays an important role in disseminating these normative and procedural developments throughout the United States and the world. It is a critical resource for the world's human rights community."

And that resource is evolving to meet contemporary technology. "We are now beginning to find ways to post the Library in PDA format so that the millions of people who access the Web on their portable phones and Blackberries can use the Library's resources," says Weissbrodt.

In addition, much of the research found in the Library has been done by Weissbrodt, HRC staff, and students. "Many human rights advocates at the front lines of the human rights struggle do not have time and resources to do the research that needs to support their important efforts," says Weissbrodt. "The Human Rights Center has been asked by Amnesty International, the Center for Victims of Torture, Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, and the United Nations to provide human rights research on such subjects as procedures for human rights monitoring, the rights of non-citizens, the right to fair trial, and human rights norms for businesses."

Stories that matter

Another important project for the Center is the Upper Midwest International Human Rights Fellowship. This program provides international human rights fellowship grants for students, teachers, lawyers, community leaders, and activists from the upper Midwest to work with human rights organizations throughout the world-including here in Minnesota. Over the past 16 years the Center has sponsored 302 interns and Fellows to work with human rights organizations in more than 70 countries.

Each of the Human Rights Fellows does important work in communities and helps create a more interconnected world. "A part of where we have focused in the last 10 years has been to make the global, national, local connection," says Center co-director Kristi Rudelius-Palmer. As these Fellows return, they present what they learned, bringing stories from all over the world back to Minnesota-stories that reverberate back out again.

One Fellow described that global, national, local connection. "What I personally gained from this experience seems infinite in scope," she said. "I feel that the best way to utilize all that I learned in Guatemala is to apply it to my own life, my family, my community, and my society; everything that I can influence."

Another Fellow had a similar reaction. "I went to Kenya in search of 'the story.' Little did I know tha 'the story' would engulf me and so violently draw me in. Now that I have been re-exposed to a wider world, I am motivated to act. What is more, I am grounded in my actions." (see sidebar for more quotes from this Fellow)

Another way for human rights stories to reverberate is through the Center's work in human rights education. Rudelius-Palmer recently met with colleagues from around the world to draft new global guidelines for teacher training and human rights education at primary and secondary schools as part of the U.N.'s World Programme for Human Rights Education. The goal, she says, is to make it all connect. "Our work has really done that through human rights education and training, through the Web site, and through our continued links of global issues to local issues."

One example of this is This is My Home, a recently-launched human rights education experience being distributed to 3,000 Minnesota K-12 schools. Supported by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, the program includes a 22-minute video produced by Twin Cities Public Television. This is My Home includes model lessons with a unique student-centered education process and a wide scope of resources for educators. The program seeks to create peaceful, effective, and fun learning environments for all to thrive in Minnesota schools.

It is through projects like this that the Human Rights Center continues to make important connections.