Since the founding of the UW Center for Human Rights in 2009, upholding access to information as a human right has emerged as a shared goal of various Center projects. Our researchers use laws including the U.S. federal Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, as well as state public records laws, to uncover documentation related

The UWCHR is excited to be part of the Panama Files project, a multidisciplinary, multinational project in partnership with the journalist collective Concolón, to help recover historical memory of the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama and further human rights objectives.

With the theme of “Education for Transformation,” our 10-year anniversary celebration in May 2019 focused on the experiences and achievements of the many outstanding faculty, students, and alumni who have contributed to the development of the UW Center for Human Rights. After the celebration, we checked in with some recent graduates to learn what they’re

In recent days many have focused a great deal of attention to the conditions under which migrants—including many children—are being held along the U.S.-Mexico border. Yet far fewer people are aware of the extent to which interrelated rights concerns crop up right here in Washington state. Student researchers at the UWCHR have set out to

In 2016, the UWCHR’s Rethinking Punishment project supported research in restorative justice by Prof Katherine Beckett and third year law student Martina Kartman. Beckett and Kartman analyzed various restorative justice projects in the country, and drew conclusions that later informed the creation of an innovative restorative justice program designed for Washington State. Collective Justice (formerly

In recent years, human rights work related to wartime crimes against humanity has accelerated and intensified in El Salvador. While it’s still an uphill battle, the possibility of securing justice in key cases before the courts seems closer than ever before—generating hope among victims, but also more palpable resistance among those accused of crimes.  In

At our 10-year anniversary celebration in May 2019, the UW Center for Human Rights proudly named Professors Katherine Beckett and Heather Evans as joint recipients of our second Justice Award, in recognition of their uniquely impactful research. Their research has contributed directly to advances in human rights, most recently when the Washington State Supreme Court relied on their findings to strike down the state’s death penalty statute.

Letter from the Director I‘m not going to lie—it’s been a tough year for human rights. It seems like every day there’s another reason to be discouraged about the state of our world, whether at home or abroad. On one particularly dark day this past February as I prepared to teach my human rights class,

Across Washington state, ICE and Border Patrol are increasingly carrying out immigration enforcement arrests at or near courthouses, raising serious concerns about access to justice for all Washingtonians.

The advent of regular ICE Air deportation and detainee transfer flights via Yakima Air Terminal-McAllister Field has deepened Yakima’s role in immigration enforcement in the Pacific Northwest, but the flights build on prior infrastructure centered on the pipeline between Yakima County jail and the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.