Human Rights First (formerly known as the Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights) is a

nonpartisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

, international human rights organization based in New York City and Washington, D.C. In 2004, Human Rights First started its "End Torture Now" campaign. The organization also runs the

Fighting Discrimination The Fighting Discrimination Program of Human Rights First focuses on the violence known as hate crimes or bias crimes. Because equality is a cornerstone of human rights protection, discrimination in all its forms is a violation of human rights. D ...

program which focuses on

hate crime A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...

Board of Directors

Human Rights First is governed by a board of directors composed of 73 members, including a 30-person Board of Advocates and a 12-person Emeritus Board. Members of the board include: *

Mona Sutphen Mona K. Sutphen (born November 10, 1967) was the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2011. She is currently a partner and Head of Investment Strategies at The Vistria Group, a Chicago-based private ...

, Senior Advisor at The Vistria Group * Matthew G. Olsen, Chief Security Officer at

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...

Jay Carney James Ferguson 'Jay' Carney (born May 22, 1965) is an American public relations officer, political advisor and journalist who has served as Amazon's Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs from 2015 to 2022, and the United States Whit ...

, head of public relations at

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

* Sarah Cleveland, Professor of Human and Constitutional Rights

Columbia University Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Columbia University, a Private university, private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestig ...

Kerry Kennedy Mary Kerry Kennedy (born September 8, 1959) is an American lawyer, author and human rights activist. She is the seventh child and third daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy. During her 15-year marriage to former New York Gove ...

, President of RFK Human Rights * Robert A. Mandell, former Ambassador to Luxembourg; Chairman & CEO of Greater Properties, Inc. (Ret.) *

Alberto J. Mora Alberto José Mora (born April 11, 1952) is a former General Counsel of the Navy. He led an effort within the Defense Department to oppose the legal theories of John Yoo and to try to end the use of torture at Guantanamo Bay. Mora is featured ...

, Senior Fellow at

Carr Center for Human Rights Policy Carr Center for Human Rights Policy is a research center at Harvard Kennedy School founded in 1999. The center's scholars address issues related to human rights, including human security, global governance and civil society, economic justice, and ...

; Chief Legal Officer at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

; Mars, Inc. (Ret.) *

Nazanin Rafsanjani Nazanin Rafsanjani is the former head of new show development for Gimlet Media. Previously she was creative director at Gimlet Media and before that, a senior producer for ''The Rachel Maddow Show''. Rafsanjani was featured in the first season o ...

, former head of New Show Development at

Gimlet Media Gimlet Media LLC is a digital media company and podcast network, focused on producing narrative podcasts and headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. The company was founded in 2014 by Alex Blumberg and Matthew Lieber, who serve as the company's CE ...

and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

Pro Bono Legal Representation for Asylum Seekers

Human Rights First's pro bono legal representation program matches good lawyers with asylum-seekers who need help and would not otherwise be able to afford high-quality legal representation. The organization helps asylum seekers living in the greater Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, and Houston metropolitan areas who do not already have legal representation, cannot afford an attorney, and need help with a claim for asylum or other protection-based form of immigration status. The organization's New York and Houston offices can also help people who are seeking asylum from within a nearby immigration detention center.

Selected publications

* ''The War Against Children: South Africa’s Youngest Victims'',

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...

, 1986. *''Vigilantes in the Philippines: A Threat to Democratic Rule'',

Diane Orentlicher Diane Orentlicher is a professor of international law at American University's Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C., and serves as Co-Faculty Director of its Center on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. In the mid-1990s, she founded the l ...

, 1988. *''Refuge Denied: Problems in the Protection of Vietnamese and Cambodians in Thailand and the Admission of Indochinese Refugees into the United States'',

Albert Santoli Albert "Al" Santoli is an American writer and Founder as well as President of the Asia America Initiative. He served in combat as a rifleman for the 25th Infantry Division during the Vietnam War. He is currently an adjunct professor of the Inst ...

, 1989. *''Paper Laws, Steel Bayonets: Breakdown of the Rule of Law in Haiti'',

Elliot Schrage Elliot J. Schrage is an American lawyer and business executive. Until June 2018, he was vice president of global communications, marketing, and public policy at Facebook, where he directed the company's government affairs and public relations eff ...

, 1990. *''Childhood Abducted: Children Cutting Sugar Cane in the Dominican Republic'', Theresa A. Amato, 1991.

References

External links

Interview with Michael Posner
from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
Interview with Tad Stahnke
from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum {{authority control Non-profit organizations based in New York City Human rights organizations based in the United States