HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
As the largest gay and lesbian organization in the U.S., the HRC provides a national voice on gay and lesbian issues. The HRC lobbies Congress, invests strategically to elect a fair-minded Congress, mobilizes grassroots action in diverse communities, and increases public understanding through innovative education and communication strategies.
CIVILRIGHTS.ORG
This web site has lots of information, including latest news, listing of local groups, a civil rights library, and more.
US COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS
The United States Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) is an independent, bipartisan, fact-finding agency of the Executive Branch, first established under the Civil Rights Act of 1957. On November 30, 1983, a new Commission was established under the Civil Rights Act of 1983.
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES ORGANIZATION
The ACLU is a national organization with more than 300,000 members devoted to defending the freedoms guaranteed under the federal and state constitutions and their Bill of Rights.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE
The NAACP is the largest and oldest civil rights organization in the US. It is a nonprofit organization established with the objective of insuring the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority groups. The NAACP has as its mission the goal of eliminating race prejudice and removing all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights. AI's mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
HRW is the largest human rights organization based in the United States. HRW stands with activists and victims, investigates and exposes human rights abuses, challenges governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law, and enlists the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all.
ANNUAL REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
An annual report on religious freedom around the world by the US State Department.
HUMAN RIGHTS WITHOUT FRONTIERS
HRWF is independent of all political, ideological or religious movements. Its object is to promote democracy, the rule of law and the rights of the individual—man, woman and child—everywhere in the world, by every appropriate means.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.COM LINKS
This web page provides links to many groups working on freedom of religion.
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA LINKS
The University of Minnesota database of human rights groups is very extensive. These links are for groups working specifically on religious freedom.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA DEATH PENALTY PROGRAM
Amnesty International was founded on a startling premise: that letters written by ordinary individuals can exert enough pressure on government authorities to effect change. AI calls for the immediate and unconditional global abolition of the death penalty.
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION CAPITAL PUNISHMENT PROJECT
The ACLU is a national organization devoted to defending the freedoms guaranteed under the federal and state constitutions and the Bill of Rights in the United States. Through vigorous advocacy, litigation and public education in appropriate forums, its Capital Punishment Project seeks the abolition of the death penalty in the United States at state and federal levels.
NATIONAL COALITION TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY
The NCADP is the only national organization with staff and offices devoted exclusively to eliminating the death penalty. It provides information, advocates for public policy, and mobilizes and supports individuals and institutions that share its unconditional rejection of capital punishment.
DEATH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER
This award winning site has extensive information about many aspects of the death penalty, including race, innocence, clemency, costs, deterrence, women, juveniles, mental retardation, and more; there is also a section with international perspectives.
HUMAN WRITES
Human Writes exists to give friendship and support to people who are on death row, whether they are guilty or innocent. If you join, you will be put in touch with whichever state has death row prisoners who have waited the longest for a pen-friend, unless you indicate that you would wish to write to a particular state. ACTION: Become a penpal to someone on death row.
GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR EDUCATION
At the dawn of a new millennium, development NGOs and teachers' unions operating in 180 countries have joined forces to launch the Global Campaign for Education (GCE). This initiative seeks to make governments liable for the fact that 125 million children world-wide are denied access to basic education and that moreover, one adult in every three—representing an additional 880 million people—is illiterate.
OXFAM INTERNATIONAL
Oxfam International is a growing confederation of autonomous non-governmental organizations, committed to working together to fight poverty and injustice around the world. Oxfam is campaigning for governments and institutions to really put their money where their mouth is and make the dream of education for all a reality. The OXFAM Education Report sets out the scale of the worldwide education crisis, identifies the causes, and sets out an agenda for reform.
READ THE WORLD CAMPAIGN
In advance of the World Forum on Education for All held in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2000, the Guardian newspaper of the United Kingdom launched a campaign aimed at providing every child with the opportunity of primary education in a school that has walls and a roof, and in a classroom that has desks and books. This web site has articles about education, numerous country reports, information about gender and education, and more.
UNESCO—EDUCATION FOR ALL
The main objective of UNESCO is to contribute to peace and security in the world by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science, culture and communication in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations. The Working Group on Education for All (EFA) provides technical guidance and information exchange between all partners in the Education for All drive. EFA is comprised of some forty key actors, including representatives of governments, regional bodies, bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, and non-governmental organizations.
CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
This is a convention covering all of the basic rights children should have and society should provide for children, including education.
UNICEF
The United Nation's International Children's Fund is mandated by the UN General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. This includes a full right to education as guaranteed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. UNICEF publishes annually the State of the World’s Children.
UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
One of the many rights the HCHR works toward is the right to education. Read about the Special Rapporteur on the right to education and the latest news on this right.
GREENPEACE
Greenpeace is an independent, campaigning organization that uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems and to force solutions which are essential to a green and peaceful future.
THE SIERRA CLUB
The Sierra Club has over 700,000 members with the mission of exploring, enjoying, and protecting the wild places of the earth, by practicing and promoting the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources. The Sierra Club seeks to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment using all lawful means to carry out these objectives.
NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL
NRDC uses law, science, and the support of more than 500,000 members in the US to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things.
PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUPS
The PIRGs speaks for the public interest against the special interests, on issues in the news and below the surface. As a public interest watchdog organization, the USPIRG and state PIRGs uncover dangers to public health and well-being and fight to end them, using the time-tested tools of investigative research, media exposes, grassroots organizing, advocacy, and litigation. They deliver persistent, result-oriented public interest activism to achieve real change that improves the quality of the environment, of the government, and of individual lives.
BUSINESS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) is the leading US-based global resource for companies seeking to sustain their commercial success in ways that demonstrate respect for ethical values, people, communities and the environment. BSR provides practical products and services to help member companies design, implement and evaluate successful, socially responsible business practices, enabling viable, sustainable growth that benefits stakeholders as well as stockholders. BSR has a comprehensive list of topics to educate about environmental sustainability.
US ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY—ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
The EPA defines environmental justice to mean the fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, and incomes with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws and policies, and their meaningful involvement in the decision-making processes of the government.
SILENT SPRING
Silent Spring Institute is a non-profit scientific research organization dedicated to identifying the links between the environment and women's health, especially breast cancer.
RACHEL CARSON WEBSITE
Devoted to the life and legacy of Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring.
ECOJUSTICE NETWORK
This site lists organizations, actions, articles and more on the issue.
INDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK
The Indigenous Environmental Network is an alliance of grassroots indigenous peoples whose mission is to protect the sacredness of Mother Earth from contamination and exploitation by strengthening maintaining and respecting the traditional teachings and the natural laws.
ARTICLE 19- THE GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR FREE EXPRESSION
Named after Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 works worldwide to combat censorship by promoting freedom of expression and access to official information. With partners in over 30 countries, Article 19 works to strengthen local capacity to monitor and protest institutional and informal censorship, and monitors, researches, publishes, lobbies, campaigns and litigates on behalf of freedom of expression wherever it is threatened.
COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS (CPJ)
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded in 1981 to monitor abuses against the press and promote press freedom around the world. By publicly revealing abuses against the press and by acting on behalf of imprisoned and threatened journalists, CPJ warns journalists and news organizations where attacks on press freedom are occurring. CPJ organizes vigorous protest at all levels – ranging from local governments to the United Nations – and, when necessary, works behind the scenes through other diplomatic channels to effect change.
INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION EXCHANGE (IFEX)
The International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) is made up of organizations whose members refuse to turn away when those who have the courage to insist upon their fundamental human right to free expression are censored, brutalized or killed. Comprising over 50 different freedom of expression groups—located everywhere from the Pacific Islands to Europe to West Africa—IFEX draws together a tremendously diverse and dedicated global community. In recent years, the IFEX community has been joined by many new members from the developing world—bringing new perspectives and energy.
PEN AMERICAN CENTER
PEN (Poets/Playwrights, Essayists, Editors, Novelists) was founded in 1921. Over the years, PEN centers have been established on six continents. The Freedom-to-Write Committee of PEN American Center protects the freedom of the written word wherever it is imperiled. It defends writers and journalists from all over the world who are imprisoned, threatened, or attacked in the course of carrying out their profession. In the U.S. it protests book-bannings in schools and counters legal challenges to the First Amendment.
REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS
The organization was founded in Paris, France, in 1985 with the aim of producing follow-up reports on catastrophes that the established press neglects after the first sensational front-page stories have been forgotten. Fighting to free a jailed journalist is not simply an internal media concern; it is a matter of defending the right to inform and be informed. It reminds us all that there can be no freedom without freedom of the press, no democracy without a diverse and independent press. This struggle must concern us all.
DIGITAL FREEDOM NETWORK
The Digital Freedom Network (DFN) develops and promotes the use of Internet technology for human rights activism around the world. DFN designs online campaigns, makes technical information more readily available to activists, and provides an online voice to those attacked for expressing themselves.
ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION
EFF is a donor-supported membership organization working to protect our fundamental rights regardless of technology; to educate the press, policymakers and the general public about civil liberties issues related to technology; and to act as a defender of those liberties.
INTERNATIONAL LESBIAN AND GAY ASSOCIATION
The International Lesbian and Gay Association is a world-wide federation of national and local groups dedicated to achieving equal rights for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people everywhere.
GAY AND LESBIAN ALLIANCE AGAINST DEFAMATION
GLAAD is a national organization dedicated to promoting fair, accurate and inclusive representation of individuals and events in the media as a means of challenging discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity.
FREEDOM FORUM
The Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan, international foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people. The foundation focuses on four main priorities: the Newseum (interactive museum of news), First Amendment freedoms, newsroom diversity, and world press freedom
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