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
• Betelhem Gedlu
  Intellectual Property and Human Rights Lawyer
• Kathryn J. Burke
  Attorney, Private Practice
• Anna Manuel
  Assistant GeneralCounsel, California Student Aid Commssion
• Julianne C. Traylor
  Associate Director, International Programs, University of San Francisco
• Trevor J. Yan
  Human Rights Lawyer

National Advisory Board

• Sandra Coliver
  Sr. Legal Officer, Open Society Justice Initiative
• Laurel E. Fletcher
  Clinical Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Berkeley, CA
• Paul Hoffman
  Schonbrun, Desimone, Seplow, Harris and Hoffman LLP, Venice, CA
• Peter Honigsberg
  Professor of Law, University of San Francisco
• JoAnne Kagiwada
  Human Rights Consultant on Religious Affairs, Oakland
• Rita Maran
  Author, Human Rights Consultant, Berkeley
• Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz
  Director, Indigenous World Association, San Francisco
• Naomi Roht-Arriaza
  Professor of Law, Hastings College of the Law, University of California

International Advisory Board

• Philip Alston
  Professor of Law, New York University
• Jose Lindgren Alves
  Executive Secretary, Institute for Public Policies in Human Rights in Mercosur, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Jeremy McBride
  Barrister, Monckton Chambers in London, U.K.
• C.M. Eya Nchama
  Judge, Court of Leases and Rents, Geneva, Switzerland
• Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
  Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 1980, Argentina
• Deepika Udagama
  Center for Study of Human Rights, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka