Since its founding in 1999, the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School has been a leading research center that has focused on some of the most intractable challenges facing the world, including genocide, torture, violence against women, and human trafficking.

The Center was founded out of the Belfer Center when Graham Allison was the director of that center, at the initiative of Greg Carr, an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School, who provided the initial endowment for the Carr Center. Harvard Kennedy School appointed Michael Ignatieff as the Carr Center’s Founding Director, who later went on to join Canadian politics and, yet later, was the president of Central European University. 

Samantha Power was appointed Founding Executive Director, and her book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide was a central piece of research that came out of the Carr Center in its early years. Samantha Power later became U.S. Ambassador to the UN and then became the 19th Administrator of USAID. Later center directors included Sarah Sewall (acting director), Rory Stewart, and Douglas Johnson. Later executive directors include Michelle Green (after Samantha Power transitioned into a faculty role), Fernande Raine, Lois E. Andreasen, Charlie Clements, and Sushma Raman. 

In celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 2018, the Center looked back to examine the progress made to date, and the opportunities and challenges that lay ahead. Its new areas of focus include the impact of technological advancements on the future of human rights; the power and impact of nonviolent social movements in effecting change; and the renewal of rights and responsibilities in the United States. In recent times, the Center's focus has also been on transitional justice, racial justice, and LGBTQI+ human rights. 

The current Director, Mathias Risse, is a moral and political philosopher focused on global justice, technology, and indigenous thought. The Executive Director, Maggie Gates, is a researcher and practitioner with experience managing social justice programs and collaborations. In 2025, the center received a transformative gift from founding supporter and Chair Emeritus of the Center's advisory Vincent (Vin) Ryan and the Schooner Foundation. In honor of his enduring support, the center was rededicated as the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights. By training the next generation of leaders, developing new knowledge and ideas, and holding convenings for human rights scholars and practitioners around the world, the Carr-Ryan Center seeks to build a more just, peaceful future. 

 

Timeline

  • 2025
    Program Launch

    The Carr-Ryan Center launches its Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy program, reaffirming the commitment to keep human rights at the heart of America’s global leadership and diplomacy. Amid geopolitical uncertainty and a global turn toward authoritarianism, the fellowship equips emerging public leaders with mentorship and academic engagement alongside U.S. policy practitioners deeply experienced in the promotion and protection of human rights.

  • 2025
    Rededication as the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights

    In honor of a transformational $10 million gift from founding supporter and Advisory Board Chair Emeritus Vincent (Vin) Ryan, Harvard Kennedy School proudly renames its human rights policy and research hub: the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights. This rededication honors the enduring commitment, vision, and generosity of Vin Ryan and the Schooner Foundation, whose support has played a foundational role in shaping the Center's legacy and future.

  • 2024
    Program Launch

    The Carr Center launches the Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program under the leadership of Timothy Patrick McCarthy as Faculty Program Chair and Diego Garcia Blum as Program Director. The Center also launches a new version of its Human Rights and Technology Program, the "Surveillance Capitalism or Democracy?" Fellowship, directed jointly by Shoshana Zuboff and Mathias Risse.

  • 2024
    Celebrating Our 25-Year Anniversary

    In 2024, the Carr Center celebrates a quarter-century of research, teaching, and training in the human rights domain, educating students and the next generation of leaders from around the world in human rights policy and providing policy-relevant knowledge to international organizations, governments, policymakers, and businesses.

  • 2023
    Maggie Gates Appointed Executive Director

    Maggie Gates joins the Carr Center as Executive Director in February 2023. Previously, she served as Co-Chair of the Executive Committee for Harvard University's Committee on the Concerns of Women. Prior to joining the Carr Center, Gates managed the Justice, Health, and Democracy Project on public health paradigms for drug control and criminal justice reform and served as Managing Editor of Transforming Anthropology, the flagship journal of the Association of Black Anthropologists.

  • 2023
    Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the UDHR

    In fall 2023, the Carr Center celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, launching a major publication entitled Making a Movement: The History and Future of Human Rights, which features 90+ Harvard faculty and affiliates and their thoughts on the next 75 years of human rights.

  • 2020
    Program Launch

    The Carr Center launches the Racial Justice Program in 2020, which brings together the Racial Justice Fellowship cohort each academic year, alongside numerous event and webinar series, including The Struggle for Black Lives series, The Fierce Urgency of Now series, and the Social Justice Leaders series.

  • 2018
    Program Launch

    Under the leadership of Mathias Risse, the Carr Center launches the Technology and Human Rights Program, which explores the many ways in which advancing technology will impact the future of human rights. It also brings together the Technology and Human Rights Fellowship and hosts the Towards Life 3.0: Ethics and Technology in the 21st Century webinar series, which draws upon a range of scholars, tech leaders, and public interest technologists to address the ethical aspects of the long-term impact of AI on society and human life.

  • 2018
    Mathias Risse Named Faculty Director

    Mathias Risse joins the Carr Center as Faculty Director. A scholar, philosopher, and ethicist, Risse has been teaching courses on human rights, ethics, economic justice, and the meaning of life for almost two decades at the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard College, and the Extension school. Under Risse’s leadership, the Center launched a new program on the impact of emerging technologies on the human rights framework: The Technology and Human Rights Program.

  • 2015
    Sushma Raman Appointed Executive Director

    Sushma Raman is appointed as the Carr Center Executive Director. During her time with the Carr Center, Raman brought with her a rich and diverse background in philanthropy, human rights, and social justice through her work in the U.S. and globally with the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Foundations.

  • 2013
    Douglas Johnson and Kathryn Sikkink Join Center

    Douglas Johnson joins the Carr Center as Faculty Director, and international relations scholar Kathryn Sikkink joins as a tenured faculty member. Johnson had served as Executive Director of the Center for Victims of Torture for 24 years.

  • 2010
    Charlie Clements Appointed as Executive Director

    Charlie Clements, a respected human rights activist and physician, joins the Carr Center as Executive Director. In collaboration with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, the Satellite Sentinel Project is launched—the first sustained public effort to systematically monitor and report on potential hotspots and threats to human security.

  • 2009
    Celebrating Our 10-Year Anniversary

    The Center celebrates its 10th anniversary. In its first decade, the Center made substantial contributions to policy, research, and teaching on genocide, the Responsibility to Protect, counter-insurgency and interventions. The Center grew and flourished with contributions from over one hundred staff, fellows, and interns, and emerged as one of the leading voices on international intervention, examining the ethical dimensions of foreign policy and its relationship to national security.

  • 2008
    Rory Stewart Appointed Director

    Rory Stewart is appointed director of the Carr Center, and named Ryan Professor of Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School. During his tenure, Stewart launched an initiative focused on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

  • 2004
    Program Launch

    The Program on Measurement and Human Rights is established. The program addresses some of the most basic yet difficult questions in the field of human rights: How do we assess progress in promoting human rights, and how can organizations assess their own impact more effectively?

  • 2003
    Program Launch

    The Carr Center launches two new flagship programs—the American Exceptionalism program, led by founding Faculty Director Michael Ignatieff, and the National Security and Human Rights program, led by Center faculty member Sarah Sewall.

  • 2002
    Samantha Power Book Published

    Power's groundbreaking book, A Problem from Hell, is published. It marks the culmination of the Carr Center’s extensive research project on U.S. policy responses to genocide in the 20th century. 

  • 1999
    Carr Center for Human Rights Policy Founded

    The Carr Center is founded by Greg Carr and Graham Allison. Samantha Power joins as founding Executive Director, and Michael Ignatieff as Founding Director.