The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy serves as the hub of the Harvard Kennedy School’s research, teaching, and training in the human rights domain. The center embraces a dual mission: to educate students and the next generation of leaders from around the world in human rights policy and practice; and to convene and provide policy-relevant knowledge to international organizations, governments, policymakers, and businesses.

 

News and Announcements

Yanilda Maria Gonzalez Making a Movement

Making a Movement: Yanilda María González on Police Violence Against Racialized Communities

March 18, 2024

In her essay for the Carr Center's latest publication, Making a Movement: The History and Future of Human Rights, Yanilda María González discusses one of the most pervasive racial justice challenges: continued police violence against racialized and impoverished communities. 

... Read more about Making a Movement: Yanilda María González on Police Violence Against Racialized Communities
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Latest Publications

The white press has a history of endangering black lives going back a century

The white press has a history of endangering black lives going back a century

Abstract:

The Black Lives Matter protests have been shaking up not just conversations about policing, but also almost every industry — including journalism. As Washington Post media reporters Paul Farhi and Sarah Ellison wrote this weekend, “Like the nation itself, news organizations across the country are facing a racial reckoning, spurred by protests from their own journalists.”

Read the article. 

 

: Megan Ming Francis | June 15 2020
: In 1919, the white national press spread a false story that covered up a white massacre of African Americans in Arkansas.

Reimagining Reality: Human Rights and Immersive Technology

Citation:

Brittan Heller. 6/12/2020. “Reimagining Reality: Human Rights and Immersive Technology.” Carr Center Discussion Paper Series, 2020-008. See full text.
Reimagining Reality: Human Rights and Immersive Technology

Abstract:

This paper explores the human rights implications of emergent technology, and focuses on virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and immersive technologies. Because of the psychological and physiological aspects of immersive technologies, and the potential for a new invasive class of privacy-related harms, she argues that content creators, hardware producers, and lawmakers should take increased caution to protect users. This will help protect the nascent industry in a changing legal landscape and help ensure that the beneficial uses of this powerful technology outweigh the potential misuses.

In the paper, Heller first reviews the technology and terminology around immersive technologies to explain how they work, how a user’s body and mind are impacted by the hardware, and what social role these technologies can play for communities. Next she describes some of the unique challenges for immersive media, from user safety to misalignment with current biometrics laws. She introduces a new concept, biometric psychography, to explain how the potential for privacy-related harms is different in immersive technologies, due to the ability to connect your identity to your innermost thoughts, wants, and desires. Finally, she describe foreseeable developments in the immersive industry, with an eye toward identifying and mitigating future human rights challenges. The paper concludes with five recommendations for actions that the industry and lawmakers can take now, as the industry is still emerging, to build human rights into its DNA.
 

: Brittan Heller | June 12 2020
: Exploring the human rights implications of virtual reality, augmented reality, and immersive technologies.
Last updated on 06/12/2020

The Floyd Protests Are the Broadest in U.S. History — and Are Spreading to White, Small-Town America

The Floyd Protests Are the Broadest in U.S. History — and Are Spreading to White, Small-Town America

Abstract:

Erica Chenoweth discusses the Floyd protests and its impact on law, social policies, and the 2020 elections.

Across the country, people are protesting the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and demanding action against police violence and systemic racism. National media focuses on the big demonstrations and protest policing in major cities, but they have not picked up on a different phenomenon that may have major long-term consequences for politics. Protests over racism and #BlackLivesMatter are spreading across the country — including in small towns with deeply conservative politics.

: Erica Chenoweth et al. | June 6 2020
: Erica Chenoweth discusses the Floyd protests and its impact on law, social policies, and the 2020 elections.
Last updated on 06/18/2020
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“The Carr Center is building a bridge between ideas on human rights and the practice on the ground. Right now we are at a critical juncture. The pace of technological change and the rise of authoritarian governments are both examples of serious challenges to the flourishing of individual rights. It’s crucial that Harvard and the Kennedy School continue to be a major influence in keeping human rights ideals alive. The Carr Center is a focal point for this important task.”

 

- Mathias Risse