USHRN members gather at member meetings and regional meetings to network and collaborate on multiple human rights issue areas. Annual member meetings provide opportunity for members to inform USHRN's program and advocacy work as well as to review and inform our strategic direction. One to two regional member meetings are also held each year, which focus on local and regional rights concerns and seek to link local advocacy efforts to national efforts. On a biannual basis USHRN hosts a national human rights conference, ADVANCING HUMAN RIGHTS, that brings hundreds of human rights and social justice activists, practitioners, and advocates together to share experiences and success stories, identify areas for collaboration, and reflect on the state of the U.S. human rights movement, including identifying pressing issues and current challenges. Click here to learn more about our 2017 national biennial conference ADVANCING HUMAN RIGHTS 2017.
To date, USHRN has convened seven biannual national human rights conferences.
- The USHRN 7th Biennial National Conference - Advancing Human Rights 2017: Sharpening Our Vision, Reclaiming Our Dreams was held in Austin, Texas. Human rights defenders from around the nation gathered to advance bold demands, stretch our political imaginations, and build our collective vision for a U.S. grounded in people-centered human rights.
- The USHRN 5th Biannual National Conference - Advancing Human Rights 2013: Dignity. Justice. Action was held in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference sought to highlight the idea of intersectionality as a tool for thinking about systemic oppression in a broader context as necessary to effectively address human rights violations. The conference consisted of workshops and presentations that focused on a multitude of issues -including immigration rights, climate and environmental justice, criminal justice and workers rights. Dr. Carol Anderson and Glenn E. Martin were keynote speakers. The inaugural US Human Rights Builders Award was awarded to five pioneering human rights defenders and one local human right organization.
- In 2011, USHRN held its biannual national human rights conference in Los Angeles. Over 200 members who represented more than 60 member and allied organizations from various states attended the 2011 National Human Rights Conference and Membership Meeting in California. The conference served as an opportunity for several new working groups and caucuses to meet and form -such as the new Afro descendent and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Working Groups.
- In 2009, USHRN hosted its first Membership Meeting in Florida. Emphasis was placed on the growing contradictions and weaknesses of the US as it pertains to the US becoming the world's biggest debtor nation and the effect this would have on the fulfillment of human rights in the country.
