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US Government Agencies Concerned with Human Rights Listed by AAAS Committee

July 15, 2014

Juan S. Gallardo, past co-chair of the Committee on the Welfare of Scientists of the AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition, has compiled a list of US Government agencies and Congressional committees that are concerned with human rights abuses. This list includes links to and contact information for these resources. 

United States Government and Congress Resources for the Defense and Promotion of Fundamental Rights

By Juan S. Gallardo

Official Web Site on Human Rights of the U.S. Government

HumanRights.gov is the official United States Government (USG) website for human rights related information. The site’s search function links users directly with news, reports and explanatory information from the State Department, USG agencies and other resources, allowing for easy access to publicly available documents. We provide a one-stop site for researching the USG’s involvement in human rights.

We cannot handle any submissions or reports about human rights abuses. Below is a list of offices which may be able to better direct information concerning human rights abuses and issues.

  • For issues related to human trafficking and slavery, please contact the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Office, or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit.
  • To report international human rights abuses, please contact the Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
  • To report information related to the United States, please contact the Department of Justice’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, or U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement’ Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center.

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor

Promoting freedom and democracy and protecting human rights around the world are central to U.S. foreign policy. Annual reports provide a record of the state of and progress on human rights in the world; those reports raise awareness of the progress made, the ground lost, and the work that remains. Contact information for the desk officers can be found here under the heading Countries & Regions.

U.S. Department of State/Human Rights

The protection of fundamental human rights was a foundation stone in the establishment of the United States over 200 years ago. Since then, a central goal of U.S. foreign policy has been the promotion of respect for human rights, as embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United States understands that the existence of human rights helps secure the peace, deter aggression, promote the rule of law, combat crime and corruption, strengthen democracies, and prevent humanitarian crises.

USAID: Democracy, Human Rights and Governance

USAID is the lead U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies.


U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary: The Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights

Jurisdiction: (1) Constitutional amendments; (2) Enforcement and protection of constitutional rights; (3) Statutory guarantees of civil rights and civil liberties; (4) Separation of powers; (5) Federal-State relations; (6) Interstate compacts; (7) Human rights laws and practices; (8) Enforcement and implementation of human rights laws.

Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission: U.S. Congress

The mission of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission is to promote, defend and advocate internationally recognized human rights norms in a nonpartisan manner, both within and outside of Congress, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant human rights instruments.

US Commission on Civil Rights

Established as an independent, bipartisan, fact-finding federal agency, our mission is to inform the development of national civil rights policy and enhance enforcement of federal civil rights laws. We pursue this mission by studying alleged deprivations of voting rights and alleged discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the administration of justice. We play a vital role in advancing civil rights through objective and comprehensive investigation, research, and analysis on issues of fundamental concern to the federal government and the public.

Congressional-Executive Commission on China

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China was created by Congress in October 2000 with the legislative mandate to monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in China, and to submit an annual report to the President and the Congress. The Commission consists of nine Senators, nine Members of the House of Representatives, and five senior Administration officials appointed by the President.

Filed Under: Human Rights Resources Tagged With: AAAS, Human Rights, Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, United States Congress, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, US Government

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Joel L. Lebowitz, Rutgers University

Walter Reich, George Washington University

Eugene Chudnovsky, Lehman College

Alexander Greer, Brooklyn College

Vice-chairs

Biology – Max E. Gottesman, Columbia University

Chemistry – Zafra Lerman, MIMSAD Inc.

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Honorary Board Members

Nancy Andrews, Duke University

Myles Axton, Chief Editor, Genetics and Genomics Next

David Baltimore, California Institute of Technology*

Alan J. Bard, University of Texas

David Gross, University of California, Santa Barbara*

James Langer, University of California, Santa Barbara

Peter Lax, New York University

Giorgio Parisi, Roma I University La Sapienza

John C. Polanyi, University of Toronto*

Stuart Rice, University of Chicago

Sir Richard J. Roberts, New England Biolabs*

Maxine Singer, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Alfred I. Tauber, Boston University

Myrna Weissman, Columbia University

Former Honorary Board Members

Jacob Bigeleisen (deceased), SUNY, Stony Brook

Raoul Bott (deseased) Harvard University

Owen Chamberlain (deceased), University of California, Berkeley

Stanley Deser (deceased), Brandeis University

Edward Gerjuoy (deceased), University of Pittsburgh

Pierre Hohenberg (deceased), New York University

Walter Kohn (deceased), University of California, Santa Barbara*

Louis Nirenberg (deceased), New York University

Marshall Nirenberg (deceased), National Institutes of Health*

Myriam Sarachick (deceased), City College of New York

Harold Scheraga (deceased), Cornell University

Sylvan Schweber (deceased), Brandeis University

Steven Weinberg (deceased), University of Texas, Austin*

Rosalyn S. Yalow (deceased), Mount Sinai School of Medicine*

* Nobel laureate

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