Human Rights For All

The Rights Working Group Principles are founded on core American values that respect liberty, human rights, and fairness.

As human beings, we have inalienable rights that enable us to live freely and with dignity. Governments do not define what our human rights are, nor can our human rights be taken away. Human rights are already inherent to us.

Some human rights are identified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948. They include such rights as right to expression, right to be free from discrimination, right to be free from torture and degrading treatment, right to participate in the cultural life of community, and more. More importantly, the UDHR is a vision for the U.S. government to uphold - a vision that is not far from American values of liberty and justice for all.

Links to human rights organizations working to protect and promote human rights in the U.S. (Names in bold are part of the Liberty & Justice for All campaign):

1. Amnesty International – Puget Sound (Seattle, WA)
2. Breakthrough (New York, NY)
3. Center for Constitutional Rights (New York, NY)
4. Global Rights (Washington, DC)
5. Human Rights First (New York, NY & Washington, DC)
6. Human Rights Watch (New York, NY & Washington, DC)
7. Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights (St. Paul, MN)
8. National Immigrant Justice Center (Chicago, IL)
9. National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (Oakland, CA)
10. United States Human Rights Network (Atlanta, GA)
11. Human Rights Project, Urban Justice Center (New York, NY)
12. WILD for Human Rights (San Francisco, CA)

Links to Human Rights Treaties:

1. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)
2. International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
3. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)
4. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
5. Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
6. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW)
7. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

To see which treaties the U.S. ratified, download our one-pager on International Human Rights Treaties.

For additional resources, news articles, and publications relating to human rights, click here.