Since 1966, CCR has pioneered daring and innovative legal strategies in pursuit of its mission to advance and protect the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Our work began on behalf of civil rights activists, and since then CCR has lent its expertise and support to virtually every popular progressive movement.

Many of the Center’s historic victories have established major legal precedents – from Filártiga v. Peña-Irala, which opened U.S. courts for victims of serious human rights violations from anywhere in the world to Rasul v. Bush, which established the right of Guantánamo detainees to challenge their detention.