Honoring Human Rights Day with Action that Matters
As we mark Human Rights Day, your support for the work of Human Rights First could not be more necessary or urgent.
At Human Rights First we imagine a world where every person can live a life of freedom and dignity and believe that a just and secure world depends on respect for human rights and the rule of law. For nearly 50 years, we’ve safeguarded human rights and advanced justice in the United States and around the globe.
- We fight to ensure that refugees and asylum seekers fleeing persecution are treated with dignity and that immigration-related challenges are tackled in ways that are humane and lawful.
- We work to hold human rights abusers accountable, root out corruption, confront official impunity, and support those that stand up to defend democracy and human rights.
- We protect and strengthen democracy by combating hate, disinformation and extremism that fuel authoritarianism and threaten individual rights and democratic institutions.
This year, with your support, we secured asylum for families fleeing persecution, advocated for humane and effective approaches on immigration, held perpetrators accountable, protected frontline advocates, litigated against hate, and leveraged AI to support asylum seekers and democratic institutions.
We need your support today to meet the significant challenges ahead in 2025.
Your support helps us protect people, democracy, and the rule of law, and resist the rising tide of authoritarianism that threatens individual rights, communities and global security at home and abroad.
Championing Rights in 2024
We protected refugees and asylum seekers.
With your support, we secured asylum for 382 individuals and their families. This number includes Afghan allies seeking safety in the United States after their assistance to the American effort in their home country left them vulnerable to retribution from the Taliban. In addition, our robust pro bono network–over 2,000 partnerships with lawyers and firms giving generously of their time and expertise–allowed us to support asylum seekers through legal clinics and other direct services. Our advocacy, fortified by our research from the US-Mexico border, informed reports and federal court rulings that upheld protections for refugees.
We supported human rights defenders.
This year, we honored Clare Byarugaba, one of the few human rights activists publicly demanding rights for LGBTQI+ Ugandans despite the threat of harsh legal penalties, with our William D. Zabel Human Rights Award. After years of work to keep his case from being forgotten, we were able to celebrate the release of our Senior Advisor Vladimir Kara-Murza from imprisonment in Russia. On Ukraine’s front lines, we equipped activists to document war crimes and assisted civilian evacuations. And in Northern Ireland, after decades of research and advocacy on the case of the murdered human rights lawyer, Pat Finucane, we finally saw progress against state impunity.
We held extremists and abusers accountable.
With the law firm Foley Hoag, we successfully sued the Neo-nazi group Patriot Front for committing a violent, racist hate crime. We testified before Congress on our research revealing the dangers of anti-democratic movements and extremist recruitment targeting the military community. We furthered accountability by advancing Magnitsky sanctions against human rights violators and corrupt officials in over 10 countries.
We innovated to empower human rights advocates.
This year, we convened our first-ever Hackathon at Howard University. More than 120 students from around the country joined us to apply new ideas and technology to the challenge of protecting democracy, combatting disinformation, and strengthening civic engagement. Our Innovation Lab prototyped new tools designed to advance the work of advocates, including Testimo, a platform that streamlines the secure collection of survivor testimony, and the AI Asylum Assistant, which will simplify complex legal processes and expand access to justice for asylum seekers.
Protecting Human Rights in 2025
The next year is going to be a challenging year for human rights. As the incoming administration seeks to fulfill its campaign promises to disrupt the status quo and crack down on immigration, it appears poised to do so with limited official guardrails and in ways that challenge individual rights, the rule of law, democratic values and long-standing frameworks, institutions and alliances that have been relied on to uphold human rights and national security.
At Human Rights First, with your support, we will be leveraging our extensive experience and coalitions to protect the rights of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, advance reforms, challenge official impunity and threats to democratic institutions, counter hate and exclusionary policies, deploy innovative tools and strategies, and foster broad-based coalitions to fight for democracy and justice.
With nearly five decades of experience and the vital partnership of supporters like you, we stand ready to meet this moment.
Every donation fuels progress, powers innovation, and amplifies impact. Together, we can make a real difference in 2025. Thank you for standing with us.
With gratitude and determination,
Sue Hendrickson
President and CEO, Human Rights First
