The Human Rights Program creates space for dialogue between the University community and the wider world, through conferences, film series, and visits to campus by prominent human rights activists and scholars, including a number of University alumni. Programs for visitors have included the Activist Fellows Roundtable, a three year cycle of meetings with senior activists from the U.S., Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala, as well as extended visits by distinguished human rights scholars and practitioners.

Since 1998, the Program has sponsored annual spring conferences on international and domestic human rights issues including detention, torture, and post-conflict reconciliation, as well as on the practice of human rights and the teaching of human rights in liberal education. The Program also sponsors an annual film series, supported by the Division of the Humanities, in cooperation with other campus organizations including the Franke Institute for the Humanities, DOC Films, and the Center for Cinema and Media Studies.

Throughout the academic year, the Program sponsors many student-initiated human rights educational events on a wide range of topics, often in conjunction with interested student organizations. Human Rights Program staff and students also speak on human rights topics at local high schools and other universities and to community organizations and activist groups.