The Latvian Centre for Human Rights (LCHR; lv, Latvijas Cilvēktiesību centrs) is a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...

which seeks to promote

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

in Latvia, founded in 1993. Its director, as of 2018, is Anhelita Kamenska (earlier heads of the centre were

Nils Muižnieks Nils Muižnieks (born 31 January 1964 in the United States) is a Latvian-American human rights activist and political scientist. He had served as the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights between 2012 and 2018, succeeding Thomas Ha ...

and Ilze Brands Kehris).

History

The LCHR was founded in 1993. It was known as the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies (LCHRES) until 2005.

Activities and international affiliation

Areas of LCHR activities include social integration, closed institutions, legal assistance in human rights cases, tolerance and anti-discrimination (LCHR is a National Focal Point of EU FRA's project RAXEN) and mental disability advocacy (LCHR is member of European Coalition for Community Living). Besides, LCHR was a member of the

International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) was a self-governing group of non-governmental organizations that acted to protect human rights throughout Europe, North America and Central Asia. A specific primary goal was to monitor ...

Awards

In May 1998, LCHRES has received the EU-US Democracy and Civil Society Award. In 2003, LCHRES has got the first Van der Stoel award, awarded in recognition of extraordinary and outstanding achievements aimed at improving the position of national minorities by a jury chaired by the OSCE

High Commissioner on National Minorities Created on July 8, 1992 by the Helsinki Summit Meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), now known as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Organizations established in 1993 Human rights organisations based in Latvia