HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS EDUCATION

The Foundation seeks to advance human rights and international affairs education, with special emphasis on Russia and China. Following Sen. Jackson’s model, we believe the most effective foreign policy is informed by research and deep area studies expertise.  

Sen. Jackson and his wife, Helen Jackson, worked to advance democracy and respect for human rights around the world. In particular, Jackson fought for human rights in the Soviet Union, and responded to Soviet dissidents’ insistence that economic aid to the Soviet Union be conditioned upon progress on human rights and democracy. With Jackson’s political leadership, this concept became reality in the landmark 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which linked the granting of most favored nation (MFN) trade status to the freedom to emigrate and established human rights as a central U.S. foreign policy concern.

Today, the Foundation supports local and global human rights efforts, including the Center for Human Rights at the University of Washington. An incredible resource, the Center for Human Rights takes an action-oriented approach and directly supports the work of grassroots organizations witnessing human rights violations. The Center also reaches students through its classes and work-study positions. It is a powerful model: while addressing human rights today, UWCHR is training the human rights practitioners of tomorrow. The Jackson Foundation is proud of its role in launching and supporting the Center.  

In addition to this Washington state resource, for two decades the Foundation supported human rights work in Russia, helping build capacity in Russian civil society. After that, the Foundation shifted its focus to NGOs working abroad on Russian human rights.   

More recently, the Foundation began supporting Global Magnitsky Sanctions Program work. The Jackson-Vanik Amendment was replaced by its intellectual successor, the Global Magnitsky Act, which allows fiscal and travel sanctions to be imposed against individuals and countries for documented human rights abuses and corruption. A critical tool to advance human rights, Congress made the legislation permanent in 2022, due in part to the tremendous efforts of the Foundation’s national human rights partners. The Act has become a model for similar legislation in many other countries.