Human Rights Advocacy: An Introduction for Immigration Advocates

Abstract

Human rights advocacy can be a useful tool for those who seek to advance the cause of social justice for immigrants in the United States. This article summarizes the basic ways in which domestic immigration advocates can effectively incorporate human rights norms and strategies into both individual case and policy advocacy. It provides an overview of relevant international human rights standards and tribunals, strategies for incorporating human rights norms into more traditional advocacy, and the basics of how to bring a case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). To demonstrate how human rights advocacy can intertwine with domestic advocacy on behalf of immigrants, case examples are discussed as well.