Advancing Human Rights (AHR) is an international

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 ...

that conducts research and

advocacy Advocacy is an Action (philosophy), activity by an individual or advocacy group, group that aims to influence decision making, decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to infl ...

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 ...

. AHR's stated objective is to "leverage the tools of democracy to support those fighting for human rights in closed societies." AHR aspires to empower these dissident voices by utilizing crowd sourcing and technology to allow activists around the world to connect to the tools, resources and expertise they need to succeed. It is the parent organization of Movements.org.

Profile

Advancing Human Rights (AHR) was created in 2010 by

Robert L. Bernstein Robert Louis Bernstein (January 5, 1923 – May 27, 2019) was an American publisher and human rights activist. Career in publishing Bernstein started as an office boy at Simon & Schuster in 1946, moved to Random House in 1956 and succeeded Benne ...

, the founder of

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ...

long-time President and CEO of

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Ger ...

, and

David Keyes David Keyes () is an Israeli-American public relations representative and human rights activist. Keyes was the executive director of Advancing Human Rights, the co-founder of CyberDissidents.org, and the head of Movements.org, a platform for c ...

. AHR focuses on freedom of speech, women’s rights and promoting the freedoms outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Programs

Advancing Human Rights (AHR) currently runs multiple programs:

CyberDissidents.org CyberDissidents.org is a division of Advancing Human Rights, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. CyberDissidents.org focuses on the human rights of online political activists. The group believes that highlighting the plight of individual democr ...

, Dissident Squared, and Movements.org. CyberDissidents.org's stated mission is to support human liberty by promoting the voices of online dissidents. CyberDissidents.org archived and cataloged the writings of international dissident bloggers in order to provide an outlet for expression and to help circumvent censorship. Dissident Squared is an AHR campaign with the mission of renaming the streets in front of the embassies of closed societies in honor of imprisoned or killed dissidents. In June 2014, Dissident Squared was supported by members of Congress in their campaign to rename the street in front of the Chinese embassy "Liu Xiaobo Plaza." Movements.org was founded in 2007 to support online human rights activists. In 2012 a grant from

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

enabled Movements.org to be taken under the management of AHR. Also in 2012, Movements.org began a collaboration wit
Al-Jazeera
to launch an interactive tracking tool that tracks the Syrian Defections of senior military officials, members of parliament and diplomats of Assad's regime. The tracker was released on Al Jazeera and can be foun
here
On July 9, 2014 Movements.org launched as a marketplace site where dissidents in closed societies can connect to legal, PR, and technological experts in open societies.

Issues

Freedom of Expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...

Women’s rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

Religious freedom Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedom ...

Open education Open education is an educational movement founded on openness, with connections to other educational movements such as critical pedagogy, and with an educational stance which favours widening participation and inclusiveness in society. Open educa ...

Internet activism Internet activism is the use of electronic communication technologies such as social media, e-mail, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster and more effective communication by citizen movements, the delivery of particular info ...

* Hate speech *

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , ...

* Human rights groups’ accountability

References

{{Reflist Human rights organizations based in the United States Charities based in New York (state) Non-profit organizations based in New York City International human rights organizations 2011 establishments in New York (state)