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Purpose and History

WILD for Human Rights seeks to advance human rights in the United States to protect the dignity of people regardless of their identity. Therefore, we aim to end identity-based discrimination through education, and the implementation and monitoring of human rights treaties in the United States.

WILD for Human Rights was the first organization in the United States to use international human rights law at the local level. We are also the only organization in the country that has a human rights program focusing on advancing the leadership of young women of color including indigenous and immigrant women.

WILD for Human Rights nationally has reached more than 5000 community leaders and activists, and trained more than 700 community-based advocates and youth from over 60 grassroots organizations and schools on leadership and practical application of human rights standards in local communities. We have accomplished this through conferences, lectures, issue briefings, workshops, and public hearings at local, state, national and international levels. Our work has been used as a model in the cities of New York, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Boise, and Seattle, in the state of Massachusetts and in India, Mexico and Nigeria, Sweden and New Zealand.

The vision of WILD for Human Rights is that everyone regardless of identity will enjoy the inherent right to dignity. WILD believes that people whose humanity is threatened need to both define and demand all conditions that are necessary to protect their dignity and humanity. Permanent positive change in the United States requires a concrete and proactive strategy to strengthen the ties between those who work to influence policy and those whose lives are impacted. Our commitment is to position women, especially marginalized women, as leaders and decision makers in their communities and to support their work in advancing policies that promote the rights of their communities. It is important to recognize that WILD for Human Rights’ work is not limited to protecting only the rights of women. We are instead, working towards the advancement of the leadership of women who engage in decision making which most often affects the larger community.

WILD was founded in June 1996 by Krishanti Dharmaraj and Wenny Kusuma after the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. As the only organization of its kind in the United States, WILD responded to the call to "Bring Beijing home."

Steering Committee to strengthen the emerging HR movement in the U.S. Converged by WILD's Executive Director Krishanti Dharmaraj and Dorothy Thomas of Shaler Adams Foundation. Mill Valley, CA. 1999.

WILD for Human Rights’ selected accomplishments include the following:

• Advocating for the passing of human rights legislation (UN Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women – CEDAW) in San Francisco that aims to reduce gender based discrimination in the areas of employment, service delivery and resource allocation.
• Initiating the establishment of a network of human rights activists and organizations in the US.
• Coordinating the establishment of a youth caucus at the UN Commission on the Status of Women and presenting on the inclusion of young women in decision-making.
• Sponsoring a multi-tiered delegation of community leaders from the US to the UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance to take action, train and advocate for policies that reflect the intersection of identity, such as class, race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality and age.
• Initiating a Women’s Human Rights Caucus at the UN World Conference Against Racism and spearheading the formation of a United States Coordinating Committee for the UN World Conference Against Racism.
• Development of human rights methodology involving the intersection of identity (intersectionality), with practical methods of integration.