Advocating for human rights
AT THE LEITNER CENTER
Our core streams of work
To promote human rights protection and promotion, our work cuts across the following five streams of work.
Creating a gender-equal world that enables everyone to live in freedom and dignity.
By focusing on gender equality with a focus on women, as well as sexual and gender minorities, the Leitner Center works with partners to foster inclusive societies for all people and address systemic inequalities. Our research and other work confronts deeply rooted stereotypes, discriminatory laws and practices, and structural barriers that perpetuate gender disparities. We aim especially to lift up marginalized voices by documenting their words and stories, and ensuring they are heard by policy and lawmakers.
Investigating systems of injustice and advocating for change.
The Leitner Center investigates systems of injustice which exist across the globe, within and outside of the United States. We advocate for change in partnership with community organizations, legal networks, and advocates who are calling for criminal justice reform and abolition. By highlighting systemic flaws and amplifying the voices directly affected individuals and communities, we aim to contribute to comprehensive reform and change.
Demanding that everyone be able to access and engage with legal systems affecting them.
Undertaking research, analysis, and advocacy work that critically examines barriers to justice and unmasks the ways in which socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, refugee status, gender, and other factors can impact access to formal and informal justice systems, the Leitner Center works in solidarity with NGO, advocate, lawyer, and other partners to create a more just and equitable world.
Centering human rights, equality, and non-discrimination.
By centering issues core to the eradication of poverty, the Leitner Center pushes to ensure that human rights, equality, and non-discrimination are at the heart of sustainable development efforts. Our capacity building and capacity sharing programs support organizations on the ground and connects their aims and expertise with framing international priorities and institutions.
Investing in global governance and international institutions.
At a critical time for investing in and building support for global institutions, the Leitner Center utilizes international mechanisms to advocate for human rights compliance and more inclusive international bodies. Leitner Center projects support research and analysis for international mandate holders, as well as NGOS seeking to make submissions.
Gender Justice
Creating a gender-equal world that enables everyone to live in freedom and dignity.
By focusing on gender equality with a focus on women, as well as sexual and gender minorities, the Leitner Center works with partners to foster inclusive societies for all people and address systemic inequalities. Our research and other work confronts deeply rooted stereotypes, discriminatory laws and practices, and structural barriers that perpetuate gender disparities. We aim especially to lift up marginalized voices by documenting their words and stories, and ensuring they are heard by policy and lawmakers.
Systems of Injustice
Investigating systems of injustice and advocating for change.
The Leitner Center investigates systems of injustice which exist across the globe, within and outside of the United States. We advocate for change in partnership with community organizations, legal networks, and advocates who are calling for criminal justice reform and abolition. By highlighting systemic flaws and amplifying the voices directly affected individuals and communities, we aim to contribute to comprehensive reform and change.
Access to Justice
Demanding that everyone be able to access and engage with legal systems affecting them.
Undertaking research, analysis, and advocacy work that critically examines barriers to justice and unmasks the ways in which socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, refugee status, gender, and other factors can impact access to formal and informal justice systems, the Leitner Center works in solidarity with NGO, advocate, lawyer, and other partners to create a more just and equitable world.
Sustainable Development
Centering human rights, equality, and non-discrimination.
By centering issues core to the eradication of poverty, the Leitner Center pushes to ensure that human rights, equality, and non-discrimination are at the heart of sustainable development efforts. Our capacity building and capacity sharing programs support organizations on the ground and connects their aims and expertise with framing international priorities and institutions.
UN Advocacy
Investing in global governance and international institutions.
At a critical time for investing in and building support for global institutions, the Leitner Center utilizes international mechanisms to advocate for human rights compliance and more inclusive international bodies. Leitner Center projects support research and analysis for international mandate holders, as well as NGOS seeking to make submissions.
ADVOCACY PROGRAMS AT LEITNER
Asia Law and Justice Program
The Asia Law and Justice (ALJ) Program exposes students to critical human rights concerns in Asia, a region that is vast, diverse, and facing a wide range of challenges to the rule of law and access to justice. Students are trained to think critically and creatively through seminar course offerings and hands-on projects in partnership with grassroots groups, including in Burma, China, and Nepal.
Sustainable Development Legal Initiative (SDLI)
Through its expertise in international law, legal education, research and practice, SDLI aims to promote the use of law to foster environmentally sound development and poverty eradication. SDLI has several capacity building projects to address human and resource capacity shortages across Africa, and facilitates legal scholarship and cooperation by sponsoring research projects, conferences and publications on sustainable development both at home and abroad.
CSR Program
Efforts to advance corporate social responsibility are vital to the Leitner Center’s mission to promote social justice around the world. Human rights, labor rights, the environment and anti-corruption efforts are impacted by almost every aspect of corporate activity from to the treatment of employees, to the impact of products and services on consumers and society, to the use of natural resources, to the disposal of waste products, to corporate relationships with communities, shareholders and government.
Human Rights in a Digital Age
The digital revolution opens up tremendous social and economic benefits, but also involves perplexing challenges, including human rights challenges implicating, inter alia, privacy, equality, free speech, and freedom of thought. The Human Rights in a Digital Age program seeks to research and examine how the digital space changes our relationships with each other, with the state, and even with ourselves – in terms of how we perform and express our identities online.
UN Advocacy Program
The Leitner Center invests in international global institutions as a means of ensuring appropriate human rights mechanism design, monitoring, implementation, and compliance. The UN Advocacy Program connects our work across student, research, and capacity sharing programs, and includes UN submissions, research and analysis programs supporting UN human rights mandates holders, and capacity sharing and support to NGOs, advocates, and networks aiming to use international mechanisms.
Some of our partners
We emphasize in our work partnership with local organizations, and taking their leadership in the design and implementation of any programs that affect them.
Interested in partnering with us?
Human rights promotion is not a solitary exercise and we value the partners we have met through our own outreach as well as those who contact us. Whether you are a current student, an alum, an advocate, community member, or other person looking to engage with us, we’d love to hear from you.
