Over the last twenty years, the tenor of United States foreign policy and the character of international activity have changed fundamentally. The globalization of the economy and the breakup of the Soviet Union have reinforced the importance of international law and brought about renewed concern for human rights. Human rights have become more central in the international debates among nations and in the actions of individual countries. There has been a notable expansion in the work of human rights activists and in the number of human rights organizations worldwide. Through a series of multilateral treaties, the human rights movement has grown enormously and become steadily more influential. Human rights are increasingly at the center of decisions made in corporate boardrooms, in governmental offices, and in courtrooms.

The University has a critical role in shaping the understanding of these developments and in training the leaders who must engage with this rapidly changing environment. The need is especially critical in Florida, inextricably linked by geography, economics, and tradition with the larger international community. Human rights are at the center of much of the immigration that has swept across Florida's shores in the last fifty years. They are woven into the prospects for the suppression or realization of human dignity that emerge from the decisions of financial institutions centered in the state.

Florida State University has both the opportunity and capacity to make a significant contribution to the promotion, understanding, and protection of human rights. With an initial grant of three million dollars provided by an anonymous donor, and matching funds received from the State of Florida, the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights ("CAHR) was established by FSU President Sandy D'Alemberte in Fall of 2000.

CAHR has a three-fold mandate at Florida State University: (1) To sponsor and support the creation of human rights related courses throughout the university's many departments and disciplines of study; (2) To provide FSU students with hands-on human rights advocacy experiences within their respective fields of study; and (3) To support the work of human rights non-governmental organizations ("NGOs") around the world.