Thurgood Marshall was an American lawyer and civil rights activist who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the U.S. Supreme Court's first African American justice. Prior to his judicial service, he successfully argued several cases before the Supreme Court, including Brown v. Board of Education.
The Founding Fathers of the United States, or simply the Founding Fathers or Founders, were a group of American revolutionary leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, led the war for independence from Great Britain, and built a frame of government for the new United States of America during the later decades of the 18th century.
Marian Wright Edelman is an American activist for civil rights and children's rights. She is the founder and president emerita of the Children's Defense Fund. She influenced leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Hillary Clinton.
The American University Washington College of Law is the law school of American University. It is located on the western side of Tenley Circle in the Tenleytown section of Northwest Washington, D.C., one block south of the Tenleytown-AU Metro station. The school is fully accredited by the American Bar Association, and a member of the AALS.
David S. Tatel is an American lawyer who serves as a Senior United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Juan E. Méndez is an Argentine lawyer, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and human rights activist known for his work on behalf of political prisoners.
Ian Martin is an English human rights activist/advisor and sometime United Nations official. His most recent UN assignment was as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya. From 2015 to 2018 he was Executive Director of Security Council Report.
John Gerard Ruggie was the Berthold Beitz Research Professor in Human Rights and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and an Affiliated Professor in International Legal Studies at Harvard Law School.
UN Watch is a Geneva-based non-governmental organization whose stated mission is "to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter". It is an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic and Social Council and an Associate NGO to the UN Department of Public Information.
The Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture (IACPPT) is an international human rights instrument, created in 1985 within the Western Hemisphere Organization of American States and intended to prevent torture and other similar activities.
Gay Johnson McDougall is an American lawyer who has spent her career addressing international human rights and racial discrimination. She is currently a Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the Leitner Center on International Law and Justice of Fordham University Law School. She was Executive Director of Global Rights, Partners for Justice. In August 2005, she was named the first United Nations Independent Expert on Minority Issues, serving until 2011.
Martin Scheinin is an international law scholar who served as the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism in 2005–2011. He was selected for this position after serving for eight years (1997–2004) as member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the independent expert body monitoring states' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. While on the committee, he was known as a defendant of the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples and opponent of capital punishment, as well as the drafter of the committee's General Comment No. 29 on states of emergency.
Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade was a Brazilian judge on the International Court of Justice, based in The Hague, Netherlands, a position he has held since 6 February 2009. Cançado Trindade was a professor at Utrecht University's Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM). He was reelected to the Court in December 2017, and took office for his second term on 6 February 2018, serving until his death in 2022.
Human rights in the United States comprise a series of rights which are legally protected by the Constitution of the United States, state constitutions, treaty and customary international law, legislation enacted by Congress and state legislatures, and state referenda and citizen's initiatives. The Federal Government has, through a ratified constitution, guaranteed unalienable rights to its citizens and non-citizens. These rights have evolved over time through constitutional amendments, legislation, and judicial precedent. Along with the rights themselves, the portion of the population granted these rights has expanded over time. Within the United States, federal courts have jurisdiction over international human rights laws.
Christoffel Hendrik Heyns was a Professor of Human Rights Law, Director of the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa at the University of Pretoria and a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee. He served as United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions from 2010 to 2016. Heyns was a visiting professor at American University Washington College of Law's Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (2006–2012).
Amal Clooney is a Lebanese-British barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, specialising in international law and human rights.
Gonzalo Alfonso Gutiérrez Reinel is a Peruvian diplomat. From June 23, 2014 to April 2, 2015 he was Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Ollanta Humala. In 2009 he was appointed Peruvian ambassador to the United Nations, in New York. From 2011 to 2014 he was the ambassador of Peru to the People's Republic of China and non-resident ambassador to Mongolia, Pakistan and North Korea. From January 1, 2017 he is appointed ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union.
Miloon Kothari served from 2000 to 2008 as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on adequate housing with the Human Rights Council. Since 2015, he is President of UPR Info. He was convener of the Working Group on Human Rights in India and the UN (WGHR) from 2009 to 2014, an Indian human rights coalition that notably focuses on the Universal Periodic Review. He currently serves as a member of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.
Intersex people in the United States have some of the same rights as other people, but with significant gaps, particularly in protection from non-consensual cosmetic medical interventions and violence, and protection from discrimination. Actions by intersex civil society organizations aim to eliminate harmful practices, promote social acceptance, and equality. In recent years, intersex activists have also secured some forms of legal recognition. Since April 11, 2022 US Passports give the sex/gender options of male, female and X by self determination.
Claudia Sofia de Windt Vicente is a Dominican international environmental lawyer and political scientist.
