Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability

The Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) was established in 1978 at Columbia University as the Center for the Study of Human Rights (CSHR). In Spring 2010, Columbia University elevated CSHR to the level of an institute. ISHR is committed to its three core goals of providing excellent human rights education to Columbia students, fostering innovative interdisciplinary academic research, and offering its expertise in capacity building to human rights leaders, organizations, and universities around the world.

Housed at ISHR, the AHDA program brings together scholars, students, representatives of civil society organizations, journalists, educators and artists, as well as policy makers and others who work on historical dialogue issues in conflict, post-conflict and post-dictatorial societies. These individuals address the political ramifications of the historical legacy of conflicts, as well as the role and impact of the memory of past violence on contemporary politics, society and culture.