About the Center

The Aryeh Neier Center for Justice merges scholarship and practice to promote socieites grounded in fairness, equality and rule of law.

Based at Bard College Berlin, the Center trains students and professionals in human rights investigations, advances research methods, and produces independent, high-impact investigations—alone and with partners—to expose abuse and bolster human rights.

The Center draws inspiration from Aryeh Neier, who fled Nazi Germany as a child and went on to lead the American Civil Liberties Union, co-found Human Rights Watch, and run the Open Society Foundations. It honors his legacy by strengthening democratic institutions and resisting authoritarian trends.

The Center works with NGOs, international organizations, media outlets, strategic litigation teams, and private-sector actors. It helps partners by providing specialized research capacity, particularly where data-driven or tech-enabled methods are needed.

To spur innovation, the Center connects human rights investigators with journalists, lawyers, programmers, data scientists, geospatial experts, weapons experts, scholars, artists, and designers. Together they develop new ways to document and communicate abuses—from machine learning tools to visual storytelling.

Through its teaching, research, and partnerships, the Center connects academic institutions to applied human rights work. Students contribute to investigations, strengthening partner capacity and preparing the next generation of human rights professionals.