PRESS RELEASE
Contact
Yasmine Ergas – Associate Director
212.854.4387
ye36@columbia.edu

Announcing the Institute for the Study of Human Rights

New York, NY - April 2, 2010

The Trustees of Columbia University have approved a proposal for the Center for the Study of Human Rights to become an institute in order to coordinate human rights studies throughout the university and connect with scholars and practitioners around the world.

The change is effective immediately, and the center is now the Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR).

This transition reflects the increasing importance of human rights studies at Columbia University, according to Andrew J. Nathan, Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science and chair of the ISHR steering committee.

"Growing numbers of students come to Columbia to study many different aspects of the subject," Nathan said. "As an institute, we can do more than we were able to do as a center to coordinate curriculum, facilitate research and link the academic study of human rights on campus with the wider world of human rights activism both in New York and around the world. It's an exciting opportunity, and we are grateful for the university trustees' giving us the vote of confidence to move forward with our plans."

In many respects, the center – established in 1978 under the leadership of Professor Louis Henkin and founding executive director Paul Martin – has already played the role of an institute, coordinating human rights education and research for students and faculty throughout the university and for visiting scholars and practitioners. As an institute, however, it will be able “to play a better role in serving its different constituencies, and in particular to deepen the offering of human rights courses, initiate and coordinate research and bridge the academic work with the advocacy community,” said Elazar Barkan, ISHR Director and professor of international affairs.

Yasmine Ergas, ISHR associate director and adjunct professor of international law and international human rights law, said that the institute will continue to produce influential academic research.

"We look forward to promoting cutting edge research agendas and to addressing pressing issues that arise in the practice of human rights," Ergas said. "Through projects regarding issues such as how we understand the impact of human rights programs, policies and campaigns, we will be able to promote dialogues among researchers and practitioners in universities, think tanks, NGOs, international organizations and governments."

Samuel Moyn, professor of history and director of the undergraduate program in human rights, said that the transformation into an institute represents an opportunity to increase human rights studies at the undergraduate level.

"Thirty years ago, CSHR pioneered human rights at universities in this country, but others have gone far further in crafting human rights programs for undergraduates," Moyn said. "The transition to the new institute could lay the groundwork for Columbia to rejoin the cutting edge" in undergraduate human rights studies.

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