The Advocates For Human Rights

Refugee and Immigrant Rights: The Advocates provides free legal representation to asylum seekers, unaccompanied children, trafficking victims, Afghan evacuees, and detained immigrants in the Upper Midwest. With pro bono assistance from hundreds of attorneys, The Advocates is the primary asylum legal service provider in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. During FY2024, The Advocates provided immigration legal help in more than 3,900 matters. In addition, The Advocates provided approximately 1,200 people with pro se materials, information, and other resources to advance their immigration cases. In addition to legal services, The Advocates collaborates on the Immigration Court Observer Project to engage hundreds of volunteers in monitoring immigration court hearings and advocates for human rights-based immigration policies at the local, state, and national level.

International Justice: The Advocates develops innovative, sustainable strategies to hold governments accountable for human rights abuses and to strengthen institutions in the international justice system. The Advocates engages our clients, diaspora communities, and international human rights partners in monitoring and documenting human rights conditions in countries around the world, and using local, regional, international, and transitional justice mechanisms to improve human rights worldwide. With the assistance of pro bono volunteers, in FY2024 The Advocates partnered with human rights defenders in more than 50 countries on 5 continents to build their capacity to engage in advocacy at the United Nations to end gender-based violence, the use of the death penalty, and violence and discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and/or sex characteristics.

Research, Education and Advocacy: The Advocates uses a human rights approach to document abuses, provide training and technical assistance to human rights defenders worldwide, engage people who have experienced human rights violations in advancing policy changes, and increase awareness of human rights. The Advocates is a leader in human rights advocacy at the local, national, and international level on our priority issues including death penalty abolition, violence against women and LGBTIQ+ persons, human trafficking, and the rights of noncitizens. The Advocates brings international human rights principles to the community and classrooms through curricular resources and training manuals; presentations, lectures, conferences, continuing education courses, and public forums; and through two unique websites.

Womens Human Rights:

Nepal School Project: