The "Bringing Human Rights Home Lawyers Network" encourages U.S. compliance with international human rights law, including through the U.N. and Inter-American Human Rights systems and the development of strategies to use human rights law in U.S. courts and domestic policy-making and debate.

The Network's 80 members are drawn from domestic social justice organizations, the U.S. programs of international human rights groups and law school human rights programs. BHRH convenes the network through semi-annual meetings and provides coordination on projects as needed.

Based on the principle that all rights are interdependent, many of these strategies crosscut different rights-based movements and respond to a growing need among domestic public interest lawyers to work together to meet common threats, such as the across-the-board attack on federal rights and the roll-back of federal social safety nets. As part of its work to develop the use of U.N. and regional mechanisms by domestic activists, BHRH worked with Global Rights to spearhead coordination and provide technical support for domestic organizations interested in intervening in the review of U.S. treaty compliance by the U.N. Human Rights Committee and the Committee Against Torture.

Bringing Human Rights Home has partnered with the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) by appearing on a panel about incorporating human rights into the work of domestic legal clinics at the (January 2007) and by discussing U.S. based human rights advocacy at a panel (May 2007.)

Cynthia Soohoo served on the planning committee for the annual Human Rights Clinical Conference at Georgetown Law School in February 2007. At the conference she facilitated a working group on Alien Tort Statute litigation and defenses in cases against U.S. officials.

Bringing Human Rights Home is currently planning projects with the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), the American Bar Association (ABA), the American Society of International Law (ASIL), the United Nations and escr-net.

The Bringing Human Rights Lawyers Network serves as a forum for information sharing, strategic discussions and relationship building.

BHRH hosted its Spring Lawyers Network Meeting on April 20, 2007 which addressed issues such as U.N advocacy, U.S. matters before the Inter-American commision and updates on pending cases in U.S. courts. Attending members included representatives from law school human rights programs, international human rights groups and civil rights groups.

In July of 2007, BHRH met with staff of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR ) to raise a number of issues concerning the processing of U.S. cases and ways to enhance the Commission's impact in the United States. 

BHRH continues to grow the Lawyers Network membership; some new members include: the American Bar Association, the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE), and the Center for Reproductive Rights.

BHRH also works to educate domestic rights advocates about international human rights standards, targeting lawyers working in substantive areas of domestic violence, health, housing and immigration.

Working closely with Columbia's Human Rights Clinic and Center for Public Interest Law, the Bringing Human Rights Home Project helps train the next generation of public interest lawyers, providing them with the skills to incorporate human rights law into their domestic practice. Columbia law students work with members of the Bringing Human Rights Home Lawyers Network and help to craft strategies using human rights law. At the same time, Columbia law student working on these projects provide crucial resources for domestic human rights work.

The Bringing Human Rights Home Project recently co-produced a video, "Books Not Bars"  with partners Witness and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. The video looks at the over-incarceration of youth in the United States from a human rights perspective and will soon be distributed with a lesson plan for high school students.

Additionally, BHRH Director Cynthia Soohoo is a co-editor of a three volume book on human rights and the United States.
Click here for more information on that three volume set.

Click here to read the article "DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Grant full citizenship to all born in the country"
co-authored by Fellow and Human Rights Clinic Attorney Carrie Bettinger-Lopez

Click here to read about the three Volume book series entitled Bringing Human Rights Home co-edited by BHRH Director Cynthia Soohoo

Click here to read BHRH Director Cynthia Soohoo's ACS Blog
"U.N. Human Rights Committee Criticizes U.S. Human Rights Record"

For more information about Bringing Human Rights Home, please contact:
Cynthia Soohoo
csooho@law.columbia.edu
(212) 854.0706