Human Rights Institute | Columbia Law School

Global Convening on Human Rights Commissions

HRI, in partnership with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, developed and hosted an international convening on national human rights commissions.

The Rockefeller Foundation sponsored our convening at the Rockefeller Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, in August 2010. The convening aimed to: (1) provide an opportunity for human rights practitioners from different countries to gain new insights into effective strategies that human rights commissions can use to facilitate legal protection and empowerment, focusing on integrating a broad spectrum of human rights; (2) produce a roadmap to guide the process of establishing a U.S. Civil and Human Rights Commission that effectively monitors human rights and protects and promotes the rights of individuals and groups; and (3) mobilize leaders of key constituencies whose support and input is essential for the development of an effective new U.S. commission.

HRI developed a Convening Outcomes document, The Road to Rights: Establishing A Domestic Human Rights Institution in the United States.  The Road to Rights describes the key ingredients necessary to create an effective U.S. human rights monitoring body, reflecting lessons learned from human rights commissions around the world. The report also provides concrete steps to advance advocacy for a domestic human rights institution and discusses some of the challenges that lay ahead.