Staff POV
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Student Voices Engaged for Equity
Tags Share While the longstanding impacts of racism permeate our society, discussions of race are largely absent from much of the public school curriculum and have become contentious in today’s educational environment. It’s left many educators searching for strategies to start constructive and open dialogue about race in the classroom. On March 10, we hosted…
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How The Piney Woods School Honors Local Human Rights Defenders
Tags Share “They damaged my leg. I said they damaged my leg. But I still walked in my purpose.” As she raised her voice to emphasize her point, Takira Adams, a freshman at The Piney Woods School, fully and powerfully embodied the spirit of human rights defender Fannie Lou Hamer, a leader in the Civil…
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Learning about human rights and effecting change through theater
Tags Share Their stories were familiar. Their anger and frustration were palpable. “She never made contact again.” “There were men outside our house with guns, and I did not know whether they were to protect us or hurt us.” “That is where the earth ate her.” In a hotel meeting room in Toreón, Mexico, 20…
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Fannie Lou Hamer: An Activist for Civil Rights and Women’s Rights
Tags Share Fannie Lou Hamer, born in 1917, was the 20th child of two Mississippi sharecroppers. Hamer was just 6 when she began working in the plantation fields with her family; she dropped out of school at 12 to work full-time. After marrying Perry “Pap” Hammer in the early 1940s, she went for what she…
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For Western Sahara, freedom has been an empty promise
Tags Share Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted recommendations of its Universal Periodic Review on Morocco. A major highlight of the process was Morocco’s abuse of human rights in Western Sahara — a country on the northwest coast of Africa that it has illegally occupied since 1975. The international community has consistently…
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From Rapid Defense Network to RFKHR: Sarah Gillman’s Fight for Justice
Tags Share On the evening of September 25, 2019, Sarah Gillman stood on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. She had been calling the United States District Court all evening to try to present an emergency request for a stay of deportation to a judge on an emergency basis. Gillman finally was able to speak…
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How Women Shaped the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Tags Share The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is widely regarded as a landmark document of the 20th century. It is the most translated document in the world and has been ratified by every country. Over the past 75 years, the UDHR has served as a blueprint for human rights and inspired several international…
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Ursula Burns: ‘Diversity is one of the things I care most about’
Tags Share A more diverse business world is, at last, beginning to emerge. But to appreciate the progress and ensure it continues, it’s important to look to the past, Integrum Holdings Partner Ursula Burns says. The former Xerox CEO discussed how businesses could work toward a more just and equitable vision for women and people…
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Compass Winter Investors Conference attendees strategize about disrupting the status quo, inclusive investments
Tags Share Monday’s Compass Winter Investors Conference brought 130 attendees to Miami to learn concrete strategies about staying the course on inclusive investments and disrupting the status quo so the business world reflects a more just and equitable vision. Noting that it took nearly three years to hold the annual winter conference in person, Robert…
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In Venezuela, legislation seeks to criminalize civil society in the country
Tags Share In the last five years, the Venezuelan regime has threatened civil society on at least 14 separate occasions with the enactment of a law furthering the restrictions to non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Jan. 18, the Vice-President of Venezuela’s ruling party, and member of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, announced once again the introduction of…
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Western Sahara Deserves a Place in Sports Activism
Tags Share The past few months of African soccer have shown the world that Morocco has no qualms with blurring the lines between politics and soccer—particularly as it pertains to disputes over the self-determination of Western Sahara, a territory Morocco has illegally occupied since 1975, after Spain ended its colonial rule over the Sahrawi-owned area.…
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Centering Human Rights Through a Whole School Approach
Tags Share Education is essential to a healthy, democratic society, and informed action for social justice is the result of instruction with intention. This is why Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights partners with schools to provide education and advance a whole school approach grounded in human rights. Through this unique program, we help partner schools…
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