Institute for the Study of Human Rights

The Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) was established in 1978 at Columbia University as the Center for the Study of Human Rights (CSHR). In spring 2010, Columbia University elevated CSHR from center to institute status. ISHR is committed to its three core goals of providing excellent human rights education to Columbia students, fostering innovative interdisciplinary academic research, and offering its expertise in capacity building to human rights leaders, organizations, and universities around the world.

ISHR manages the undergraduate human rights major (offered solely as a concentration until 2011), the GSAS human rights MA program, and a number of other human rights initiatives which are well-regarded in the field.

Most other college human rights departments take a diverse view of the field, incorporating things like peace and justice studies, philosophy and the study of social movements. The ISHR is distinguished by its massive NYC-influenced fetish for the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, generally believing these (and Africa) to be the only source and end of human rights.