Civil/Human Rights Resources

NOW is the largest, most comprehensive feminist advocacy group in the U.S. We take action to bring women into full participation in society -- sharing equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities with men, while living free from discrimination.

To protect your Second Amendment Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and protect our country's hunting and shooting traditions.

The mission of the Urban League movement is to enable African Americans to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights.

Founded in 1970, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) is the oldest and largest nonprofit law firm dedicated to asserting and defending the rights of Indian tribes, organizations and individuals nationwide.

The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) is New York State's largest student-directed research and advocacy organization. Our principal areas of concern are environmental protection, consumer rights, higher education, government reform, voter registration, mass transit and public health. We are a nonpartisan, not-for-profit group established to effect policy reforms while training students and other New Yorkers to be advocates. Since 1973, NYPIRG has played the key role in fighting for more than 150 public interest laws and executive orders.

Norwegian People’s Aid is the labour movement’s humanitarian organisation for solidarity. Our goal is human worth and equal rights for all, irrespective of sex, disability, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual preference or social status.

NYSCCC (NYS Citizens’ Coalition for Children) provides support, information and advocacy for foster and adoptive parents and professionals in New York State.

Oxfam America is a global organization working to right the wrongs of poverty, hunger, and injustice. As one of 17 members of the international Oxfam confederation, we work with people in more than 90 countries to create lasting solutions. Oxfam saves lives, develops long-term solutions to poverty, and campaigns for social change.

PFLAG envisions a world where diversity is celebrated and all people are respected, valued, and affirmed inclusive of their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.

We work with people convicted of crime, survivors of crime, and the families of both to advocate for policies that make Oregon’s approach to public safety more effective and more just.

People For the American Way is a progressive non-profit organization working to further a vision of America's future that's built on equal rights, freedom of speech, religious liberty, and equal justice under the law for every American.

PETA was founded in 1980 and is dedicated to establishing and defending the rights of all animals. PETA operates under the simple principle that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment. PETA educates policymakers and the public about animal abuse and promotes kind treatment of animals. PETA is an international nonprofit charitable organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, with affiliates worldwide.

Read more: http://www.peta.org/about-peta/learn-about-peta/#ixzz3I9H94lw7

Since 1986, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has used medicine and science to document and call attention to mass atrocities and severe human rights violations. PHR was founded on the idea that physicians, scientists, and other health professionals possess unique skills that lend significant credibility to the investigation and documentation of human rights abuses. PHR’s specialized expertise is used to advocate for persecuted health workers, prevent torture, document mass atrocities, and hold those who violate human rights accountable. PHR’s work focuses on the physical and psychological effects of torture and sexual violence, the forensic documentation of attacks on civilians, the unnecessary and excessive use of force during civil unrest, and the protection of medical institutions and health professionals working on the frontline of human rights crises.

We are a trusted health care provider, an informed educator, a passionate advocate, and a global partner helping similar organizations around the world. Planned Parenthood delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of women, men, and young people worldwide.
For nearly 100 years, Planned Parenthood has promoted a commonsense approach to women’s health and well-being, based on respect for each individual’s right to make informed, independent decisions about health, sex, and family planning.

PARC is a prison abolitionist group committed to exposing and challenging all forms of institutionalized racism, sexism, able-ism, heterosexism, and classism, specifically within the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC). PARC believes in building strategies and tactics that build safety in our communities without reliance on the police or the PIC.

Privacy International is committed to fighting for the right to privacy across the world. We investigate the secret world of government surveillance and expose the companies enabling it. We litigate to ensure that surveillance is consistent with the rule of law. We advocate for strong national, regional, and international laws that protect privacy. We conduct research to catalyse policy change. We raise awareness about technologies and laws that place privacy at risk, to ensure that the public is informed and engaged. To ensure that this right is universally respected, we strengthen the capacity of our partners in developing countries and work with international organisations to protect the most vulnerable.

The Pro-Choice Public Education Project is dedicated to engaging young women on their terms around the critical issue of reproductive freedom. Historically, the reproductive rights movement has marginalized young women, women of color, and low-income women, among other groups. PEP works to bridge the gap between organizations and diverse young women by both listening to young women's stories, and by working with organizations to help them meet young women where they are.

Public Citizen serves as the people’s voice in the nation’s capital. Since our founding in 1971, we have delved into an array of areas, but our work on each issue shares an overarching goal: To ensure that all citizens are represented in the halls of power.

For four decades, we have proudly championed citizen interests before Congress, the executive branch agencies and the courts. We have successfully challenged the abusive practices of the pharmaceutical, nuclear and automobile industries, and many others. We are leading the charge against undemocratic trade agreements that advance the interests of mega-corporations at the expense of citizens worldwide.

The Rainbow PUSH Coalition (RPC) is a multi-racial, multi-issue, progressive, international membership organization fighting for social change.
RPC was formed in December 1996 by Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. through the merging of two organizations he founded earlier, People United to Serve Humanity (PUSH, 1971) and the Rainbow Coalition (1984). With headquarters in Chicago and offices in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and Oakland, we work to make the American Dream a reality for all our citizens and advocate for peace and justice around the world. We are dedicated to improving the lives of all people by serving as a voice for the voiceless.
Our mission is to protect, defend, and gain civil rights by leveling the economic and educational playing fields, and to promote peace and justice around the world.

The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights is a nonprofit charitable organization that works to realize his dream of a peaceful and just world. The RFK center’s core programs focus on the power of the individual, working through alliances and organizations, to generate change.

The functions of the Commission are set out in the Scottish Commission for Human Rights Act (2006) (the Act). Under the Act the Commission has a general duty to promote awareness, understanding and respect for all human rights - economic, social, political, cultural and civil - to everyone, everywhere in Scotland, and to encourage best practice in relation to human rights

End Violent Conflict. It’s our purpose -- our call to action.
We strive to build sustainable peace for generations to come. We work with all sides of a conflict, providing the tools they need to work together and find solutions.

OutServe-SLDN is the association for actively serving LGBT military personnel and veterans. We are a non-partisan, non-profit, legal services, watchdog and policy organization dedicated to bringing about full LGBT equality to America's military and ending all forms of discrimination and harassment of military personnel on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. OS-SLDN provides free and direct legal assistance to service members and veterans affected by the repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law and the prior regulatory ban on open service, as well as those currently serving who may experience harassment or discrimination. Since 1993, our in-house legal team has responded to more than 12,000 requests for assistance.

Shelter helps millions of people every year struggling with bad housing or homelessness – and we campaign to prevent it in the first place.

We’re here so no one has to fight bad housing or homelessness on their own.

Visit shelter.org.uk to join our campaigns, find housing advice, or make a donation.

We need your help to continue our work. Please support us.

For over 40 years, the Shriver Center has improved lives through the development of innovative and effective programs and policies that advance justice and opportunity.

SpeakUp! provides Youth, Educators, and Parents the skills, opportunity and support to SpeakUp! and be heard on the critical topics of today.

SpeakUp! enables youth to make positive life choices--and parents and educators to support them--as they navigate the journey to become happy, confident adults.

The Student Press Law Center is an advocate for student First Amendment rights, for freedom of online speech, and for open government on campus. The SPLC provides information, training and legal assistance at no charge to student journalists and the educators who work with them.

AJC's mission is to enhance the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel, and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world.

The Arc promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and actively supports their full inclusion and participation in the community throughout their lifetimes.

The Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights (the Institute) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) human rights organization dedicated to the promotion and defense of internationally recognized worker rights in the global economy. Founded in 1981 as the National Labor Committee, the Institute's research, in-depth reports, high profile public campaigns and widespread media coverage have been instrumental in creating the anti-sweatshop movement in the United States and internationally. The Institute is headquartered in Pittsburgh with regional offices in Dhaka and San Salvador and research/advocacy partnerships in China, Jordan, Central America and South Asia.

The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.

Traditional Values Coalition is the largest non-denominational, grassroots church lobby in America. Founded in 1980, by Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, Chairman, TVC has sought to empower people of faith through knowledge.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country.

The USCBL, currently coordinated by Human Rights Watch, is a coalition of thousands of people and U.S. non-governmental organizations working to: (1) ensure no U.S. use, production, or transfer of antipersonnel landmines and cluster munitions; (2) encourage the U.S. to join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions; and (3) secure high levels of U.S. government support for clearance and assistance programs for victims of landmines, cluster munitions and other explosive remnants of war.

The Civil Rights Act of 1957 created the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Since then, Congress has reauthorized or extended the legislation creating the Commission several times; the last reauthorization was in 1994 by the Civil Rights Commission Amendments Act of 1994.

United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) is a grassroots organization run entirely by youth and students. We develop youth leadership and run strategic student-labor solidarity campaigns with the goal of building sustainable power for working people. We define “sweatshop” broadly and consider all struggles against the daily abuses of the global economic system to be a struggle against sweatshops.

We envision a world in which society and human relationships are organized cooperatively, not competitively. We struggle towards a world in which all people live in freedom from oppression, in which people are valued as whole human beings rather than exploited in a quest for productivity and profits.

WEDO views strong and diverse partnerships as integral to meeting its goals. It allies with women’s organizations; environmental, development and human rights organizations; governments; and intergovernmental organizations, including the United Nations, to achieve its mission. WEDO’s core competency has been high-level advocacy in international arenas, while building bridges among a range of stakeholders.