Something Inside So Strong: A Resource Guide on Human Rights in the United States

This resource guide is meant to serve as a starter kit for a movement for human rights in the United States. It is the first publication of the US Human Rights Network, which was formed by the 50 individuals and organisations who participated in the Second Leadership Summit on Human Rights in the United States in July 2002. This set of framework and tools to support human rights action and advocacy in the United States emerged from the insights and activism generated by the Summit, which was hosted by the Howard University Law School and supported by grants from the Ford Foundation and the Shaler Adams Foundation.

Something Inside So Strong is motivated by the observation that, while activists in the USA are familiar with and attuned to the concept of civil rights violations, these violations are indeed human rights violations. The guide begins by stressing that these abuses do occur in the United States; they are not merely a problem of other countries. Human rights law, according to the authors, offers a broader array of rights protections than domestic US law. Further, they stress, a human rights approach offers new tools to strengthen domestic advocacy in terms of framework, method, and strategy. In that context, this guide is meant to offer activists a human rights vision, framework, and set of tools to use in their struggles for justice in the United States. These are not meant to replace existing laws and strategies, but to bolster them and provide new avenues of activism.

Following an Introduction, Section II of the guide explores some of the major human rights violations experienced by immigrants, American Indians, prisoners, the economically poor, and those who suffer discrimination, and outlines how the use of a human rights approach may be helpful in addressing these problems. Each issue-specific subsection includes a list of resources that community activists may use to educate themselves about the human rights tools available to them, with a focus on how to use them in collaboration with others. Section III lays out the growing use of human rights in education, organising, fact-finding, legal work, policy advocacy, and scholarship in the United States and discusses the methods and strategies being used in this work. It is designed to provide a rough guide to community activists in any issue area who may be interested in using human rights in their US advocacy. The guide concludes with a summary of challenges and priorities common to US human rights work and a commitment to several collaborative and issue- or method-specific next steps. Its Appendices provide contact information for the Summit participants, as well as other resources.

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