Human Rights Masters student Shelby Ankrom put her learning from Professor Barb Frey's Human Rights Advocacy course into practice during her summer internship at the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT). While supporting CVT's New Tactics in Human Rights program, Shelby used her knowledge from Professor Frey's course and the experience working closely with New Tactics training materials to better understand the wide variety of human rights advocacy tactics available to practitioners. In this piece, Shelby shares some of her most salient takeaways from her time at CVT and the ways in which she sees her internship as a stepping stone to future professional positions.

The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Forum hosted by Augsburg University in Minneapolis featured human rights faculty and student voices. Sessions including exploring the peace process in Colombia and the mission to end nuclear weapons. Undergraduate student Kate Denney attended the event, and shares her reflections.

We are excited to announce the third year of Human Rights Initiative (HRI) Research Funding for faculty research projects that are designed to advance the study and protection of human rights. The HRI calls on faculty from the University of Minnesota to submit, by October 17, 2018, one-year funding proposals for grants between $10,000 and $50,000 that promote the scholarly and artistic activities of the faculty and their graduate students and that foster academic excellence in the field of human rights at the global and local levels.

We express our sorrow at the loss of Arvonne Fraser, who died on August 7, 2018.  Fraser was a visionary, a leader and a friend to the human rights community in Minnesota and around the world. She was, and will continue to be, a role model and mentor for generations of human rights activists. Barbara Frey, director of the Human Rights Program, observed, “Arvonne’s steadfast moral leadership through every phase of her life inspired us deeply, here in Minnesota and around the world.”