Partners for Dignity and Rights
In partnership with communities, Partners for Dignity and Rights, formerly National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI), works to build a broad movement for economic and social rights, including health, housing, education and work with dignity.
Based on the principle that fundamental human needs create human rights obligations on the part of government and the private sector, Partners for Dignity and Rights advocates for public policies that guarantee the universal and equitable fulfillment of these rights in the United States.
Partners for Dignity and Rights was founded in 2004 in response to growing interest from activists in bringing human rights home, and holding the United States accountable to meeting the full range of basic human rights standards for all its people. NESRI has sought, from its inception, to create a foundation for integrating economic and social rights into U.S. law, policy and political culture.
Adopting a partnership-based approach and supporting local human rights efforts as a starting point for broader movement building, they formed their first partnership in 2004 with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Since then, they have developed a broad range of diverse partnerships with community organizations across the country. Partners for Dignity and Rights, along with its partners, has also built national networks and coalitions that transfer successes across localities and develop national agendas based on the local work.
They have four program areas - education, health, housing, and work with dignity - with an overarching goal of supporting a cohesive and broad economic and social rights vision through social movement building that creates sustainable social justice change in the United States.
