Human Rights from the Bottom Up

The Institute for Human Rights (IHR) serves as a platform for research and education on human rights with a particular focus on the struggle of vulnerable and disadvantaged populations, including people with disabilities, minorities, refugees, women, children, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and people dealing with the consequences of poverty. We study how international human rights concepts, principles, and norms develop effect at the local and grassroots level and serve as a way to empower communities to claim their rights. By combining top-down approaches with bottom-up perspectives to human rights, IHR engages in community-engaged research, interdisciplinary education, and outreach to the Birmingham community and society at large.

The IHR engages in three different ways:

Education

The IHR strives to educate students, faculty, and the community locally, nationally and globally on the content of human rights, human rights implementation, and issues relating to human rights violations.

Research

The IHR serves as a platform for individual and collaborative research on human rights with a particular focus on the human rights of disadvantaged populations around the world.

Outreach

The IHR engages with communities in Birmingham, in Alabama, the U.S. and around to world to discuss pressing human rights issues, to provide context on human rights implementation, and to offer human rights education.