The ultimate tragedy is not the brutality of the bad people, but the silence of the good people/

About the Center

The Center for Human Rights of the College of Arts and Letters (CAL) at San Diego State University (SDSU) supports and promotes human rights research and education at SDSU, as well as opportunities for engagement with human rights organizations in San Diego County and in the San Diego-Tijuana binational area and beyond.

The center offers a Certificate in Human Rights that is open to all majors.  It seeks to expand the understanding of human rights in a range of evolving social and regional contexts through a meaningful course of study.  The films and speaker series organized by the center enrich students’ educational experience and awareness of pressing human rights issues that we face locally, nationally, and globally. 

Center for Human Rights, San Diego State University

 

Hayden, Abdullah, Nona, Kiana

Student Testimonies

Students share their insights on how the Interdisciplinary Human Rights Certificate Program inspires forward thinking.

Read the story.

Internships: Serena, Luke, Kali, Janae

Center Makes Internships Possible for Students

With support from the San Diego Peacemakers Fund, students assist refugees, migrants, human trafficking victims, and work for other social justice causes.

Read the internship story on the CAL website.
Apply for an award for participating in an unpaid human rights internship.

collage from historic international human rights events

SDSU Library Collection on Human Rights

Human Rights Studies Online is a research and learning database providing in one place comprehensive, comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide.

 

New Report on Human Rights Abuses at the U.S.-Mexico Border

Read No Right to Life: Lives Lost and the Legalized Violence That Shaped the Humanitarian Crisis at the Arizona Borderlands by Sarah Diaz and Madeline Brashear, Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

This report is published in connection with the Conference on Race and the Borderlands: Human Rights, Human Triumphs, and Forging Peace on the U.S.-Mexico Border, organized by the Center for Human Rights and Hansen Peace Chair at San Diego State University, April 7-8, 2023.

report cover - back country, trees with no foliage, grave marked with cross