The US Human Rights Network (USHRN) is a national network composed of over 200 self-identified grassroots

Grassroots

A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...

 human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 organizations and over 700 individuals working to strengthen what they regard as the protection of human rights in the United States. The organization seeks "to challenge the pernicious belief that the United States is inherently superior to other countries of the world, and that neither the US government nor the US rights movements have anything to gain from the domestic application of human rights."http://www.ushrnetwork.org Members include organizers, lawyers, policy groups, educators, researchers, and scholars. The US Human Rights Network is currently headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

History

The US Human Rights Network was founded in 2003 by over 50 organizations and individuals as a consequence of the US Human Rights Leadership Summit "Ending Exceptionalism: Strengthening Human Rights in the United States," held in July 2002 at Howard University

Howard University

Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...

's Law School. Summit participants discussed six issue areas (Poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

, discrimination

Discrimination

Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...

, immigration

Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

, incarceration

Incarceration

Incarceration is the detention of a person in prison, typically as punishment for a crime .People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime, and different jurisdictions have differing laws governing the function of incarceration within a larger system of...

, death penalty, and sovereignty

Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...

), and six sectors of work (education, documentation, organizing, legal, policy, and scholarship). The Network was officially launched on Human Rights Day

Human Rights Day

Human Rights Day is celebrated annually across the world on 10 December.The date was chosen to honor the United NationsGeneral Assembly's adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , the first global enunciation of human rights...

 (December 10th) 2003.

Issues

The US Human Rights Network and its member organizations focus on the following issues:

• Affordable Housing
  Affordable housing
  Affordable housing is a term used to describe dwelling units whose total housing costs are deemed "affordable" to those that have a median income. Although the term is often applied to rental housing that is within the financial means of those in the lower income ranges of a geographical area, the...
  
  
• Criminal Punishment
• Death Penalty
• Discrimination
  Discrimination
  Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
  
  
• Right to Healthcare
• Immigration
  Immigration
  Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
  
  
• Economic and Social Rights
  Social rights
  Economic, social and cultural rights are socio-economic human rights, such as the right to education, right to housing, right to adequate standard of living and the right to health. Economic, social and cultural rights are recognised and protected in international and regional human rights...
  
  
• Workers' Rights
  Labor rights
  Labor rights or workers' rights are a group of legal rights and claimed human rights having to do with labor relations between workers and their employers, usually obtained under labor and employment law. In general, these rights' debates have to do with negotiating workers' pay, benefits, and safe...