Mission Statement

The Lab’s social justice mission is to track and monitor ongoing humanitarian, environmental and socio-political crises throughout the Americas by using open source investigative methods to achieve accountability for communities adversely affected by human rights violations and to promote justice. Learn more.

Join Us at the Lab!

We accept students in any major, in all divisions. We also accept graduate students. Students are accepted into the Lab in Spring quarter for the following academic year, unless students are part of the summer recruitment effort for transfer and incoming students. Learn More.

ATTENTION TRANSFER & INCOMING STUDENTS: Apply NOW to join next academic year's team. Deadline: Aug. 1st, 5pm. Link HERE!

"My time as a student researcher at UC Santa Cruz's Human Rights Investigation Lab has been inspirational."
-Undergraduate student

Support Our Research!

With donations from supporters like you, the Lab can continue to train the next generation of human rights investigators at UC Santa Cruz, launching them into new career fields in public interest technology, human rights research, journalism, academia, and the law. Support us today!

Campus & UC Supporters

Campus Supporters
Research Center for the Americas
Institute for Social Transformation
The Humanities Institute
Division of Graduate Studies
Office of Research

University of California Supporters
Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley
The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA