Despite ongoing challenges, there have been significant positive developments in human rights worldwide. For example, the number of people living in extreme poverty has declined from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 689 million in 2019, with many countries making significant progress in reducing poverty and increasing access to education and healthcare. The global literacy rate has also increased from 77% in 1980 to 86% in 2016, with significant gains made in countries such as China and India. In addition, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of human rights, with many countries adopting new laws and policies to protect the rights of marginalized communities. For example, in 2020, the United States Supreme Court ruled that workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal, while around the same time, India decriminalized homosexuality. These positive developments indicate that progress is being made in advancing human rights worldwide, although there is still much work to be done to ensure that all people are able to live with dignity and freedom.

Nonprofits Supporting Human Rights

Discover organizations dedicated to human rights causes and subcategories.

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Restoring sewa

We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing Women-Led Rural and Community Resilience through sustainable, community-driven development initiatives. Our work focuses on empowering women and vulnerable communities by promoting education, child nutrition, healthcare, rural livelihoods, climate resilience, disaster preparedness, and social inclusion. Through grassroots partnerships, local leadership, and collaborative action, we aim to create long-term social impact, strengthen resilient communities, and support inclusive and sustainable development across underserved regions.

New Liberian Women Organization

Our mission is to touch the lives of all women and youth through economic empowerment, advocacy, and skills building.

Melwood

Melwood is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization that proudly serves individuals with differing abilities throughout the Washington Metropolitan area.

Upper Marlboro, Maryland

Legacy House

Legacy House, a public 501(C)(3), is a long-term aftercare program created to support human trafficking survivors, providing a loving and stable home environment where we work with survivors toward self-sufficiency.

Willits, California

Fair Start Movement

The Problem: Family planning in the world today is based upon a parent-centered and isolationist model that hurts children, families, communities, and our environment. That model prevents the realization of freedom and is the fundamental source of our social and ecological crises. That model is the product of governments and businesses that profit from population growth, want to avoid collective obligations that require investing in rather than exploiting future generations, and who helped eliminate the responsibilities inherent in having kids as a means of accelerating growth. The Solution: Having Kids acts as a “part replacer,” replacing the morally incoherent parent-centered model, which has been debunked by theorists, with the truly human rights-based and child-centered Fair Start model. That move will also create space for the development of even better models. Future children should be the focus of family planning laws and policies because they have the most at stake. That change is the key to freedom – the freedom to a say in the rules under which one lives, to equal opportunities in life, and the freedom from others that is nature. That is what a decolonized future looks like. This is not merely theoretical, but the basis for concrete action we can take today at multiple levels of social change – legal, institutional, cultural, discursive, etc. The Fair Start model is the best construction of the moral and legal right to have children. Here are examples of how Having Kids is replacing the old and isolationist model with the Fair Start model. Having Kids is more a praxis of truly human rights-based family planning than an entity. We invite you to join the transition to better family planning by taking actions to ensure kids a fair start in life, and speaking out about what you’ve done. The human brain is predisposed to focus on the immediate over the important. Working for social change without family planning reform is the worst case of this tendency, but together we can change direction. Having Kids is not just another voice in the crowd. Instead, we make sure all voices matter by changing the nature of the crowd.

Tucson, Arizona

HEART for Widows

HEART for Widows was founded with the aims of improving the lives of the widows across the nations and offering them a better place in the societies, because Widows are a large part of the female population worldwide, most especially in developing countries. Seeing this, being a voice for the widows is our main objective. We aim not only to raise awareness of this situation, but also network with other governmental and non-governmental institutions. Consequently, the foundation has set as it goals to guide in setting up of Self-empowerment programs for widows in the countries of interest. Because of that it is important for us to work with volunteers on ground, wherever we start.

Encinitas, California

Dui Hua Foundation

Dui Hua is a nonprofit humanitarian organization that seeks clemency and better treatment for at-risk detainees through the promotion of universally recognized human rights in a well-informed, mutually-respectful dialogue with China. Focusing on political and religious prisoners, juvenile justice, women in prison, and issues in criminal justice, our work rests on the premise that positive change is realized through constructive relationships and exchange.

San Francisco, California

PPE Kids

Making a difference in communities through dedicated service and impact.

Amani Sasa

Amani Sasa loves our refugee neighbors by offering them safety, wholeness and empowerment to live out their God-given purpose.

Jacksonville, Florida

THERE IS HOPE FOR ME INC

We provide survivor peer mentoring and support to survivors of human trafficking and domestic abuse. We conduct awareness talks and outreach to vulnerable populations and at risk youth.

Miami, Florida