The Stanford Human Rights Center is pleased to open the third year of its distinguished speakers' series on The Future of Human Rights by welcoming Steven W. Hawkins, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA to Stanford Law School. Mr. Hawkins will present on

The Future of Human Rights Advocacy in the U.S.

Steven W. Hawkins joins the Stanford Human Rights Center to discuss bringing human rights home, putting a human rights lens on domestic issues of injustice, security and discrimination

Steve Hawkins joined Amnesty International USA in September 2013. Hawkins began his career in social justice as an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, where for nearly six years he represented African American men facing the death penalty. During this period, he investigated and brought litigation that led to the successful release of three teenagers wrongfully convicted in Tennessee. He later became the executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) where he helped end the death penalty for juvenile crimes. Hawkins then moved into philanthropic work as senior program manager at the JEHT (“Justice, Equality, Human dignity and Tolerance”) Foundation, and later as program executive at Atlantic Philanthropies, where he directed the foundation's investment in a $60 million campaign to protect and defend human rights against abusive national security policies.

Most recently as Executive Vice President and Chief Program Officer of the NAACP, Hawkins is a nationally renowned attorney and grassroots advocacy leader at the forefront of social justice issues, including death penalty abolition, criminal justice system reform and defending civil liberties.

Hawkins is a graduate of Harvard College and New York University School of Law.

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