Human Rights Institute | Columbia Law School

Human Rights at Home Campaign & State and Local Government Coordination

HRI advocates for greater coordination of federal, state and local efforts to promote and protect human rights within the United States.  The Institute works directly with state and local agencies and officials to build their capacity to implement human rights by raising awareness of U.S. human rights obligations and developing strategies to incorporate human rights locally.  HRI also advocates for institutionalized federal support for local efforts, including funding, education and training and dedicated staff.  

As part of this work, HRI chairs the Human Rights at Home (HuRAH) Campaign’s State and Local Government Subcommittee, which brings state and local agencies and officials together with advocates to identify and amplify effective human rights strategies and to support the creation of a national human rights infrastructure, including a federal Inter-Agency Working Group on Human Rights and a National Civil and Human Rights Commission.

HRI seeks to effect change through advocacy in domestic and United Nations fora, including treaty reviews and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process. In these efforts, HRI has developed a strong partnership with the International Association of Official Human Rights Agencies (IAOHRA).

Under the auspices of HuRAH, HRI has released three reports on state and local human rights implementation.

Mostly recently, in December 2012, HRI released Bringing Human Rights Home: How State and Local Government Can Use Human Rights to Advance Local Policy.  This report, geared toward State and Local policymakers, details over a dozen ways that states, cities, and towns are integrating international human rights principles into local policy and highlights the benefits of a human rights approach.  The report offers concrete recommendations to advance local policy using a human rights framework.

Building on the recommendations made during the U.S. UPR, in August of 2011 HRI published a Toolkit for IAOHRA members, detailing how state and local agencies can translate recommendations made to the United States during the UPR into local policy and practice.

In 2009 HRI released State and Local Human Rights Agencies:  Recommendations for Advancing Opportunity and Equality through an International Human Rights Framework. Focused on the valuable role of state and local agencies in human rights implementations, this report details human rights standards and strategies and describes how a number of agencies are already using human rights and offers recommendations for advancing human rights here at home.