Pitt Human Rights Initiative

The purpose of the University Human Rights Working Group is to strengthen working relationships between the University of Pittsburgh and community leaders working to address a variety of human rights concerns in our region. We work to amplify human rights on the city's and universities' agendas and promote public consciousness and discourse around human rights. We support collaborative networks that connect scholars, students, and community advocates to share and apply knowledge about advancing human rights in our region. By bringing diverse groups together and mobilizing university resources, we join in a community-wide human rights city process that empowers an informed and active human rights constituency in Pittsburgh.

Our Work

See all Past Working Group Activities and Reports

Reparatory Justice

Transforming systemic racism: Historical truth telling & reparations working group

• Summary of Conversations on the state of reparations organizing in Pittsburgh with local leaders Randall Taylor, Khalid Raheem, and Rev. Dale Snyder (Bethel AME Church), Nov. 16, 2022.
• “American Apartheid: From diagnosis to treatment and prevention”In this article in the University Times, Working Group members Jackie Smith & Noble Maseru introduce the series and discuss connections to social science and public health research

Housing rights

• In 2016, 2018 and 2024, we helped convene community Housing Assemblies on Pitt's campus, gathering a wide range of community leaders, national and globally recognized scholars of housing policies, along with residents, activists and students to learn together and explore the causes of housing insecurity and to support work for housing justice.
• Global Human Rights Expert/Advocate Visits Pittsburgh, Meets City Leaders and Residents-April 2022, together with the City’s Commission on Human Relations, and Pitt’s Global Studies Center (and other co-sponsors) we welcomed global housing expert, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Adequate Housing, Leilani Farha to meet with Pittsburgh public officials, housing advocates, students and other residents. See our report on the visit, which highlights insights and recommendations from this visit with Ms. Farha, who now leads global housing rights organization, The Shift.

Supporting Community Learning and Empowerment

• University Working Group members helped support Pittsburgh activist and student engagement with the 2023 Human Rights Cities Leadership Summit in Atlanta, organized by the U.S.-Canada Human Rights Cities Alliance.

• Global Human Rights Reporting--The University Human Rights Working Group supports local advocates in preparing submissions to United Nations Human Rights reporting mechanisms, providing opportunities for researchers and students to both learn about local human rights conditions and international human rights institutions and to help advance human rights learning in our community. Together with residents, we helped produce the following UN submissions.

• Report on the Treatment of People of African Descent by Law Enforcement Agencies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania And Allegheny County, Input submitted to inform the country visit to the United States by the United Nations International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in the context of Law Enforcement (EMLER) (24 April – 5 May 2023)
• Racial Discrimination & Equity in the United States: Evidence from Pittsburgh (July 2022)-Report to United Nations Review of U.S. compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
• Racial Inequity at the Core of Human Rights Challenges in Pittsburgh -Full Pittsburgh Stakeholder Report to United Nations Universal Periodic Review of the U.S. Government, 2-Page Summary
• Pittsburgh joins other US Cities in UN Report: "Corporate Influence Threatens Human Rights in Communities Nationwide" (*For more details on the national campaign see UPR Cities Initiative).

University Human Rights Working Group Members

Community Leaders
Marcia Bandes, Pittsburgh for CEDAW Coalition (Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women)
Jason Beery, Senior Research & Policy Analyst, Urbankind
Helen Gerhardt, Steering Committee member Pittsburgh Human Rights City Alliance and Pittsburghers for Public Transit
Michael Goodhart, Director, Global Studies Center, Pitt & Advisory Board member, Pittsburgh Human Rights City Alliance
Jam Hammond, Executive Director, City of Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations
Carol Hardeman, Community Organizer, Hill District Consensus Group
anu jain, Executive Director, Gender Equity Commission, City of Pittsburgh & Founder, Inclusant Consulting
Jamilah Lahijuddin, Youth Organizing Program, Hill District Consensus Group
Dawn Plummer, Pittsburgh Food Policy Council
Jessie Ramey, Chair, City of Pittsburgh Gender Equity Commission & Director, Women's Studies Institute-Chatham University
Carl Redwood Jr., Hill District Consensus Group, Vice-Chair, Board of Directors
Monica Ruiz, Community Organizer, Casa San Jose
Mike Stout, President, Izaak Walton League-Allegheny County Chapter & Former Grievance Chair, USW Local 1397, Homestead Works
Randall Taylor, Penn Plaza Support and Action Coalition
Laura Wiens, Director, Pittsburghers for Public Transit
Teireik Williams, CMU CreateLab and South Oakland Neighborhood Group (SONG)

University Members
Lisa Alfredson Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
Amy Bowman-McElhone, Department of Art History, Carlow University
Peter Odell Campbell, Department of English Program in Composition, Literacy, Pedagogy, & Rhetoric
Heath Cabot, Department of Anthropology
Melinda Ciccocioppo, Psychology Department, University of Pittsburgh
Lauren Collister, Director, University Library Systems Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing
T. Elon Dancy, Director, Center for Urban Education (CUE)
Sabina Dietrick, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
Waverly Duck, Director, Urban Studies Program & Department of Sociology
Daren A. Ellerbee, M.S., Director, Community Engagement Center - Homewood
Rosta Farzan, Associate Professor, School of Computing and Information
Shanti Gamper, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA)
Erika Gold Kestenberg, School of Education Center for Urban Education
Marcela Gonzalez Rivas, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA)
Sarah Goodkind, School of Social Work
Jordan Hayes, Department of English
Holly Hickling, University Honors College Academic Community Engagement Advisor
Cory Holding, Department of English
Shenay Jeffrey, Outreach Coordinator, Office of PittServes, & Advisory Board member, New Voices for Reproductive Justice
Jessica Kaminsky CMU - Center for Shared Prosperity, Senior Community Engagement Specialist
Michelle King, Learning Instigator, Teacher-Powered Pittsburgh
Candice Kieffer, RDH MS, Dental Medicine Dental Hygiene Program (Pitt)
Kari Kokka, Department of Instruction and Learning
Mark Kramer, Senior Lecturer, English Dept
Dan Kubis, Humanities Center “Public Humanities
Sera Linardi, Associate Professor of Economics at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA)
Jules Lobel, School of Law
Leslie Marshall, Associate Director of the Center for Sustainable Business, Katz Graduate School of Business
Noble Maseru, Director, Center for Health Equity & Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion
Dara D. Mendez, PhD, MPH, Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health
Scott Morgenstern, Department of Political Science
Jordan Mroziak, CMU Center for Shared Prosperity, Senior Community Engagement Specialist
Michael Murphy, Department of Sociology
Illah Nourbakhsh, K&L Gates Professor of Ethics and Computational Technologies at Carnegie Mellon University and director of the Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment (CREATE) Lab
Paul Nelson, Associate Dean, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
Marily Nixon, School of Law
Mary Ohmer, Community Organization and Social Action Program, School of Social Work & Center for Race and Social Problems
Leigh Patel, Associate Dean of Equity and Justice in University of Pittsburgh School of Education
Salvatore Pioer, Urban Studies
Anne Rashied, Department of English and Director of Women's and Gender Studies, Carlow University
Roger Rouse (Retired), Global Studies Center
Jeffrey Shook, School of Social Work
Sam Shepherd, Arts & Sciences Graduate Fellow, History Department
Jackie Smith, Department of Sociology
Fernando Tormos-Aponte, Department of Sociology
Trevor Young-Hyman, Assistant Professor of Business Administration and Sociology in the Katz School of Business
Molly Warsh, Associate Director, World History Center
Eve Wider, Director, Millstein Library and Coordinator, Regional ULS Libraries
Rashad Williams, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs

• • Project coordinator: Jackie Smith, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Sociology
    

*Supporting roles
*Jamie C. Ducar, Assist. Dir. Community Relations, Pitt Office of Community Relations

Activities

• Human Rights Working Group Annual Report 2017-2018

• Housing Justice -Housing Summit
• Health, Human Rights, and Cities Initiative
• Campus Equity
• Dialogue Series: Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  • Opening Panel: Human Rights in Pittsburgh and the World
• Forums on Amazon HQ2 and the Right to the City
  • "Pittsburgh's Economic Revitalization: Technology, Corporate Power, and Democratic Accountability"
  • 'Human Rights, the Right to the City, and Amazon HQ2: Forged for all?

• Open letter to Pitt Chancellor: Urging our universities to stand up for immigrant rights and DACA "dreamers"
  • Summary of recommended Actions and University services for immigrant/DACA students

Meeting Documentation
November 2017
October 30 2017