The Human Rights Education Institute was founded in 2007 to:

• Bolster the human rights movement in the United States by fostering linkages between U.S. civil society and the global human rights movement;
• Help advocates for social justice, civil rights, and other progressive issues see what they do as contributing to the global human rights movement and frame their work in terms of international human rights;
• Provide people with the knowledge and skills to apply human rights to their daily lives;
• Promote education in K-12 schools that helps shape values, attitudes and behaviors that uphold respect for human rights, and;
• Motivate civil society to defend and promote human rights locally and globally.