HRA is a human rights organization based in Berkeley, California. We are dedicated to promoting and protecting international human rights in the United States and abroad.

HRA participates actively in the work of various United Nations human rights bodies, using its status as a fully accredited Non-Governmental Organization. We are most involved at the United Nations Council on Human Rights, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Sustainable Development, and several treaty bodies, including the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. We also participate in UN Conferences, including the women’s conference in Beijing, China; the racism conference in Durban, South Africa; and the Conference on the rights of the child in New York, NY.

HRA addresses the panoply of human rights issues, including minority and bodies on the human rights aspects of such issues as: minority and peoples’ rights; the rights of the child; juvenile criminal sentencing; trafficking in women and children; migrant worker rights; the right to housing; the right to food; affirmative action; corporate accountability; and human rights and the environment.

Board of Directors

• Connie de la Vega

  Professor of Law, University of San Francisco

• Kimberly Irish

  Program Manager, Breast Cancer Action

• Jeremiah Johnson

  Attorney, Reeves and Associates

• Amol Mehra

  Founder and Executive Director, Right Respect

• Nicole Phillips

  Staff Attorney, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti

• Birte Scholz

  Coordinator, Huairou Commission

• Julianne C. Traylor

  Associate Director, International Programs, University of San Francisco

National Advisory Board

• Sandra Coliver

  Sr. Legal Officer, Open Society Justice Initiative

• Laurel E. Fletcher

  Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Berkeley, CA

• Paul Hoffman

  Schonbrun, Desimone, Seplow, Harris and Hoffman LLP, Venice, CA

• JoAnne Kagiwada

  Human Rights Consultant on Religious Affairs

• Michelle Leighton

  Director of Human Rights, Center for Law & Global Justice, Univ. of San Francisco School of Law

• Rita Maran

  Author, Human Rights Consultant

• Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz

  Director, Indigenous World Association

• Naomi Roht-Arriaza

  Professor of Law, Hastings College of the Law, University of California

• Dinah Shelton

  Professor of Law, George Washington University

• David Weissbrodt

  Fredrikson and Byron Professor of Law, University of Minnesota

International Advisory Board

• Philip Alston

  Professor of Law, New York University

• Yuji Iwasawa

  Assoc. Professor of Int’l Law, University of Tokyo, Japan

• Jose Lindgren Alves

  National Coordinator for the Alliance of Civilizations, Brazil

• Mulya Lubis

  Center for Human Rights Studies, Indonesia

• Jeremy McBride

  Senior Lecturer, University of Birmingham, U.K.

• C.M. Eya Nchama

  Official Representative, Office of Human Rights, Dept. of Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland

• Adolfo Pérez Esquivel

  Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 1980, Argentina

• Deepika Udagama

  Center for Study of Human Rights, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka