Through its interdisciplinary research and teaching initiatives, the Human Rights Program (HRP) at UC Berkeley investigates the political, historical, legal, economic, social, psychological, and representational dynamics of human rights. Through its Speaker Series, the HRP invites distinguished scholars across disciplines to present their recent research on human rights. Hosting several lectures and a book roundtable each semester, the program brings these scholars into conversation with the Berkeley community. The program also advances human rights research at Berkeley through its postdoctoral fellowships, made available to academics who study the historical and theoretical foundations of human rights. 

The Human Rights Interdisciplinary (HRI) Minor is the program's primary teaching initiative. Helping undergraduates explore issues via multiple forms of thought and media of expression—through literature as well as politics, journalism as well as law, film as well as anthropology—the HRI Minor emphasizes the many different intellectual spaces in which human rights questions are currently being posed.