Program on Human Rights

Funded in 2009, the Program on Human Rights (PHR) is a unique intersection of the social sciences and public-policy formation and implementation. It provides a forum for the dozens of Stanford faculty who work in disciplines that engage or border on human rights (including law, philosophy, political science, education, human biology, public health, history and religious studies) and the more than 30 student-initiated human rights groups on campus. It seeks to relate the research and findings of the academic disciplines to domestic and human rights policy today.

The PHR seeks to understand how human rights can best be deployed to advance social justice, freedom, equality, development and the rule of law. Which people and institutions set and apply human rights standards? What are the primary obstacles (legal, political, social, economic and technological) to advancing human rights, and how can they be overcome? And given the divergence in the cultural norms, patterns of economic and legal organization, religious, moral and political creeds within and across nation states, should human rights standards differ from place to place?

Goals:

• Generate timely and policy-driven research on human rights
• Promote student service work in human rights, both internationally and in the U.S.
• Promote awareness and sensitization of human rights issues through thought provoking events and workshops
• Facilitate connections, communications and collaboration among the many parts of Stanford that work on human rights.

Updated October 2013