Human Rights
AJC's commitment to human rights dates back to its establishment in 1906. At the founding conference of the United Nations in 1945, AJC leaders such as Jacob Blaustein and Joseph Proskauer were official NGO consultants to the US delegation and successfully pressed to ensure that the UN Charter included international human rights guarantees.

 

AJC's human rights agenda is pursued primarily through its Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI). With a universal concern, JBI calls attention to human rights issues of core importance to the Jewish community, i.e., combating religious intolerance, torture, discrimination (whether based on race, religion, sex, or other status), and preventing the indifference that can lead to genocide. For example, JBI advocated for the investigation and prosecution of those indicted for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, in Rwanda, and currently in Darfur. AJC's Board supported the ratification of the International Criminal Court.

 

Committed to the protection of human rights through multilateral organizations as well as through state-to-state contacts, JBI supported and played a key role in the establishment of the post of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which Jacob Blaustein himself was among the first to advocate. JBI supports reform of the United Nations in ways that will secure better mechanisms by which the international community can continue to protect against human rights violations.

 

AJC has supported U.S. ratification of major human rights instruments including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and the Convention against Torture. AJC's Board has called for U.S. ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Such ratification will strengthen human rights protections for Americans and strengthen the institutions that monitor these rights elsewhere.

 

JBI has conducted original research and produced analyses of central issues in the field of international human rights. Honorary AJC President Robert S. Rifkind is Chair of the Institute. JBI Director Felice Gaer has been appointed as an expert member of important human rights bodies, including the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent federal commission, and the UN Committee Against Torture, an official UN treaty-monitoring body. The Institute's research is mainly directed at improving the promotion of international human rights through the UN and other international organizations.

 

Primary subjects of JBI's ongoing programming include:
  • Building Effective International Human Rights Mechanisms and Institutions
  • Human Rights Defenders
  • Terrorism, Torture and Detentions Policy
  • Preventing Genocide
  • Religious Intolerance
  • Human Rights and Antisemitism
  • International Human Rights of Women
  • Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict
  • Other Emergent Human Rights Crises

 

JBI centers its programs on:

  1. Setting human rights standards and clarifying the concepts involved;
  2. Building national and international institutions to assess compliance with those standards; 
  3. Defending human rights defenders and advancing the techniques they bring to their work;
  4. Networking and constituency building, and capacity development;
  5. Advocacy & educational training; and,
  6. Participating in international human rights bodies.

 

Key JBI benchmarks include:
  • 1972 – Convened an international conference that produced the Uppsala Declaration on the right to freedom of movement
  • 1980 – Established the Andrei Sakharov Fellowship
  • 1993 – Successfully championed the establishment of a UN High Commissioner on Human Rights
  • 1995 – Supported developments that led to the creation of the International Criminal Court
  • 1998 – Led a nationwide 50th commemoration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  • 2001 – Spearheaded opposition to Antisemitism at the Durban Conference against Racism
  • 2002 – Advocated for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to implement commitments to combat antisemitism
  • 2004 – Advocated a halt to genocide in Darfur

Related Items:

  1. Why the United States should seek membership on the UN Human Rights Council in 2007 by Felice D. Gaer
  2. After the Promise from Copenhagen to Cordoba An Update on Keeping OSCE Commitments to Combat Anti-Semitism, June 2005
  3. Israel Under Rocket Attack: A Profile of Displacement and Destruction; prepared by Professor Frances Raday
  4. Human Rights Discussion Paper: The U.N. Role in Human Rights: An Introduction
  5. We Must Halt the Genocide in Darfur, Sudan Now
  6. We Can't Be Silent on Darfur: Op-Ed written by David Harris, AJC executive director, and Ruth Messinger, executive director of the American Jewish World Service, in an op-ed.
  7. JBI Open Letter on UN Auschwitz session
  8. Press Release: AJC Hails UN Holocaust Day Resolution
  9. JBI Director Felice Gaer Addresses UN Conference on Anti-Semitism
  10. Jacob Blaustein Institute Calls on States, OSCE to Establish Anti-Semitism Monitor
  11. After the Promise: Keeping OSCE Commitments to Combat Antisemitism
  12. JBI Chair Addresses NGO Preparatory Meeting for the OSCE Berlin Conference on Anti-Semitism
  13. Opening Remarks the Human Rights Movement: Past Achievement, Future Priorities:
    A program in commemoration of the Dag Hammarskjöld Centennial
  14. AJC Human Rights Director Re-Elected to UN Committee Against Torture
  15. Antisemitism: An Assault on Human Rights
  16. Waterboarding is Torture and Must End, says Jacob Blaustein Institute