Bringing Human Rights Home

Human Rights in the United States

PHRGE has extensive expertise on using human-rights tools and norms to implement human rights in the United States.

• Professor Martha Davis has co-edited a three-volume series on domestic human rights, Bringing Human Rights Home: A History of Human Rights in the United States; filed amicus briefs asserting human rights norms in domestic cases; offered in trainings on human rights for advocates and legislators; and produced training materials for litigators. She has also been a prolific speaker on human rights in a domestic context.
• PHRGE leads the Bringing Human Rights Home Lawyers’ Network, a group of 800+ U.S. lawyers and advocates who work in partnership with impacted communities to advance social justice using a human-rights framework. The Network empowers activists by serving as a platform for collaboration, education, and networking. Join the Network!
• PHRGE promotes the implementation of human-rights norms and standards in state and local law and policy. PHRGE’s methods include providing technical assistance to human-rights commissions, human-rights cities, and “welcoming” cities — and providing action-oriented research to advocates on topics such as the gender equity, immigrants’ rights, racial equity, and water rights.
• PHRGE leverages international human-rights mechanisms to influence federal policy on issues such as housing rights, racial justice, and water rights.

Co-op Opportunities for NUSL Students

• PHRGE regularly seeks work-study eligible sudents semester-long co-ops. The focus of these co-op is human-rights advocacy in the United States.
• The co-op work involves (1) coordinating the Bringing Human Rights Home Lawyers Network, a nationwide coalition of hundreds of advocates and academics devoted to promoting human rights in the United States; (2) providing substantive support to coalition members in preparing materials for UN submission and in seeking opportunities to promote human rights within the Biden administration; (3) interfacing with UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights issues of interest to U.S.-based activists; and (4) supporting PHRGE's human-rights events.
• The co-op work focuses on issued such as the following:  water rights; the right to housing; the economic, social, and cultural rights of immigrants; and women’s rights. This co-op is an excellent opportunity to make connections with human-rights advocates!
• The co-op student will work with Professor Martha Davis and PHRGE Director, Elizabeth Ennen. The co-op position involves 35 hours/week; at least some of these hours will be on site. The work may involve some travel. The position is unpaid unless the student is eligible for work-study funding. (Please note that if you use work-study funds for this co-op, and have already borrowed up to the "maximum cost of attendance," your work-study payment will be in the form of a loan reduction.  Please contact the Financial Aid Office for more information.)

2022 CERD Review of the United States

• PHRGE submitted two shadow reports for the review of the United States conducted by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination: (1) with the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, Race and Representation in the United States: Civil Right to Counsel as a Human Right, and (2) with the International Association of Official Human Rights Agencies, Toward An Effective National Human Rights Institution for the United States of America.
• Professor Martha Davis and PHRGE Co-op Student Jennifer '23 attended the CERD Review in Geneva, where they advocated for the civil right to counsel as a human right and for the importance of establishing a national human rights institution in the United States.