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Vote to Bring HRF to SXSW 2027

Help us bring HRF’s ideas to the SXSW stage in Austin.

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Vote to Bring HRF to SXSW 2027

Help us bring HRF’s ideas to the SXSW stage in Austin.

Our Latest Work

Aug 17, 2026

Vote to Bring HRF to SXSW 2027!

Each year, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) brings the global struggle for freedom to South by Southwest (SXSW), one of the world’s largest gatherings of innovators, creators, technologists, and thought leaders in Austin, Texas.

Aug 14, 2026

HRF’s AI for Individual Rights Newsletter #13

Across this week’s news, authoritarian regimes continue deploying AI-powered surveillance to better identify and track critics.

Aug 13, 2026

HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #133

In Russia, Putin’s dictatorship officially designated the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) as an “undesirable” organization.

Aug 11, 2026

Toolkit to Counter the Chinese Communist Party’s Transnational Repression

The Human Rights Foundation’s Toolkit to Counter the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Transnational Repression (TNR) is a direct outcome of HRF’s 2026 Beyond Borders workshop, which brought together young activists from Uyghur, Hong Konger, Tibetan, Chinese, and Southern Mongolian diasporas and Taiwan.

Aug 10, 2026

HRF’s AI for Individual Rights Newsletter #12

This week we look at how police in Delhi shockingly used AI-powered facial recognition to scan India’s largest youth protest in decades, matching faces against a police database in real time.

Aug 6, 2026

Russia designates HRF as “undesirable” in response to Tyranny Tracker’s “fully authoritarian” assessment

NEW YORK (Aug. 6, 2026) — The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) condemns the decision by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation to officially designate HRF and its work as “undesirable.”

Aug 6, 2026

HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #132

In Syria, the transitional government replaced the Assad-era pound, which lost more than 99% of its value since 2011. The new pound removes two zeros from the old currency, but the process has created new barriers for Syrians holding old banknotes outside the formal economy, especially those who are unbanked, far from Damascus, or reliant on cash.

Aug 5, 2026

HRF Petitions UN in Case of Dr. Mahrang Baloch

NEW YORK (Aug. 5, 2026) — The Human Rights Foundation (HRF), Freedom House, and Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) filed a petition with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on behalf of renowned Baloch human rights defender, Dr. Mahrang Baloch, who is serving a life sentence in Pakistan.

More than half of the world lives under tyranny

Tyranny is the root of poverty, war, and torture

We’re uniting the world to stand against tyranny.

More than half of the world lives under tyranny

Tyranny is the root of poverty, war, and torture

We’re uniting the world to stand against tyranny.

Our Programs

HRF’s AI for Individual Rights program is the world’s first to support open-source, privacy-protecting artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the hands of dissidents and expose how AI is used by autocrats as a tool of repression.

Art is a powerful tool for dissent in closed societies, provoking constructive dialogue and creating space for debate beyond mainstream bodies of political discourse. Authoritarian governments around the world recognize the power of art as a conduit of change and systematically persecute, repress, or censor artists to silence political dissent.

All governments, especially those of dictators, frequently debase, manipulate, demonetize, and surveil currencies, confiscate property, and freeze the bank accounts of people they don’t like. Dissidents, human rights defenders, journalists, and nonprofit organizations in authoritarian countries face enormous obstacles just to receive donations and pay bills.

So for many years, North Korean defectors have organized efforts to smuggle outside info into North Korea on USB drives to counter Kim Jong-un’s constant propaganda.

Global Media Impressions

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Video Views of Human Rights Advocates Telling Their Story

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New Tech/Creative Partnerships with Activists

75+

Dollars in New Funding for Human Rights Work

$50m+

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