About IJRC
The International Justice Resource Center (IJRC) shares essential information, skills and support with local advocates around the world to help them achieve justice and accountability for human rights violations using international law.
Every day around the world, individuals and communities are denied enjoyment of fundamental rights and privileges, such as when they are imprisoned without cause, denied participation in processes impacting their health or land, subjected to unhealthy working conditions, discriminated against, or punished for expressing their opinions. When governments perpetrate or fail to respond to these wrongs, the protections of the international human rights framework are often the last best hope for victims and the local advocates who defend them.
Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world. -Eleanor Roosevelt
International law is often more protective of fundamental rights than national law and can be enforced by independent, neutral courts and monitoring bodies at the regional and international levels, as well as by national courts. However, most advocates are unfamiliar with this international human rights framework and have little or no access to information and support on how to use it.
IJRC is the first comprehensive resource to provide victims and advocates with the practical information they need to educate themselves and protect their own and others’ rights within the international human rights framework. By creating a one-stop online resource hub of practical, advocate-oriented materials, together with complementary tailored trainings and litigation support, IJRC will help close the gap between human rights guarantees and victims’ access to effective redress.
Our Mission
IJRC’s mission is to empower individuals, through knowledge, to use the law and legal mechanisms for the greater protection of human rights around the world. IJRC is committed to ensuring access to educational materials, training and support for victims and advocates.
This short video explains why IJRC is committed to democratizing access to the international human rights system:
Our Vision
IJRC will be a leading resource for research, litigation support, and education in human rights law; its work will enable practitioners to effectively incorporate human rights norms into their advocacy, allow the general public to understand the legal framework for the protection of their human rights, and advance respect for the rule of law and the universality of human rights guarantees.
Our Services
- online resources: News Room features updates on international law and human rights conditions, and the Learn & Research resource hub includes practical guidance materials, human rights legal research tools and other information for understanding and accessing the international human rights framework;
- tailored trainings on the substance, availability and utility of human rights law and mechanisms;
- advocacy support, through the provision of research and analysis of international human rights law, assistance in developing advocacy and litigation strategies, and other support, including amicus curiae or third-party intervenor briefs.
