We created this international advocacy training program in 1997 to amplify the voices of human rights activists within the international arena by linking their work at home with the human rights agenda of the United Nations.
Each spring we invite activists from around the world to participate in this month-long training, held at our headquarters in Washington and in Geneva during the annual session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Advocacy Bridge participants are briefed on the mechanisms of the UN human rights system, work in cross-regional and thematic teams to prepare country-specific and thematic advocacy materials for use at the Commission, and engage in influencing the outcomes of the Commission's resolutions as IHRLG delegates.
As of April 2001, 68 human rights activists from over 22 countries have completed this program. Advocacy Bridge participants have called on the international human rights community to take action on such issues as
- Police brutality and impunity in Argentina and Peru
- Discrimination against women and the indigenous and Afro-Caribbean populations in Nicaragua
- Violations of human rights during armed conflict in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (including crimes against women and the coerced enlistment of children)
- Trafficking in persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Cambodia
- Racial discrimination in Brazil
- Denial of women's inheritance rights in Benin, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo
- Racial profiling, the death penalty and environmental racism in the United States
- Crimes against women in the name of family honor or religion in Afghanistan, Jordan, Pakistan and Yemen
- Transitional justice in Burundi, Cambodia and Sierra Leone
For more information contact info@hrlawgroup.org.
