Submit Your Poster to the Annual Human Rights Day Symposium

The Human Rights Program is excited to present our second annual Human Rights Day Symposium on December 9, 2025.

Each year, the international community observes Human Rights Day on December 10, honoring the day in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This landmark document set forth a vision of equality, justice, and dignity for all.

This inspiring event brings together our human rights community, faculty, and students to explore the progress, challenges, and future of the global human rights movement. The symposium will spotlight efforts to defend human rights, featuring a student poster session, faculty panel discussion, and a keynote address. Participants will engage with emerging research, exchange ideas, and examine both the advances and ongoing challenges in protecting human dignity worldwide. 

This event provides a unique platform for you to present your work. The student poster presentations will showcase projects, policies, research, and creative engagement on critical human rights issues. The symposium aims to foster collaboration and dialogue around human rights. All interested students are welcome to apply to participate in the poster session. The Human Rights Program will pay for poster printing. Students enrolled in campus human rights programs are especially encouraged to share their work.

We are thrilled to announce that we will be able to offer up to 6 student awards of up to $1,000 each! Posters will be evaluated based on human rights messaging, persuasiveness of analysis, depth and accuracy of content, and visual engagement. In addition, student presenters will become eligible for funding to present their poster at another professional conference. 

The poster session will take place from 2:30-3:45 PM on December 9. Apply to present at the Student Poster Session by the extended deadline of Sunday, November 9. Students will be notified of acceptance. Upon acceptance, you will have until December 1 to submit your poster for printing. Detailed instructions will be provided to presenters.

Application Details

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional students from all disciplines are invited to apply to present, in a poster presentation format, work focused on human rights issues at the local, national, or international levels. Submissions can include:

Research Projects: Academic, empirical, and applied research focused on a specific human rights issue, policy, or initiative.

Advocacy Projects: Projects demonstrating organized efforts to address a human rights issue, from online awareness campaigns to grassroots mobilization.

Professional Experiences: Reflections on experiences in human rights through volunteer work, internships, jobs, or fieldwork.

Policy Analysis: Research focused on evaluating or proposing human rights policies or frameworks at any level.

Creative Engagements: Art-based presentations that explore or communicate human rights themes.

Submissions should draw a clear and thoughtful connection to human rights and be consistent with human rights principles and standards Submissions can address any dimension of human rights, including but not limited to:

• Civil and political rights
• Economic, social, and cultural rights
• Environmental justice and human rights
• Human rights in technology and digital spaces
• Refugee and migration issues
• Gender equality, race, and intersectionality
• Human rights and conflict
• Genocide or mass violence
• Accountability for human rights violations
• Nationalism and ethnic violence
• Representations of violence or trauma

How to Apply

For the application, students will need to include the following:

• Type of proposal (research project, advocacy campaign, experience, artistic engagement)
• Proposal Title
• Poster Proposal: This is a summary of your project. It should highlight your major points, explain why your work is important, describe how you researched your problem, and offer your conclusions. No more than 1,200 characters.
• Connection to Human Rights: draw a clear and thoughtful connection between your project and human rights or explain how it is consistent with human rights principles and standards.
• Key Words: Specific terms or phrases that highlight the main themes, topics, or skills related to your project, research, or experience.

The application deadline is Sunday, November 9. Apply here. 

The Human Rights Day Symposium is sponsored by the Human Rights Program, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Institute for Global Studies, the Ohanessian Fund for Peace and Justice, the College of Liberal Arts, and the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.