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The struggle for human rights depends on collaboration, unity and solidarity. For all of us who feel the moral imperative to stand up against policies that weaken or abrogate human rights, now is the time to take action.

This year’s Human Rights Day on Dec 10, 2025 arrives in the shadow of a great loss and the spark of a renewed purpose. Our co-founder, Dr. Noah Bardach, passed away in October, leaving behind a loving community of family and friends, and also a legacy of service and commitment to human rights. Noah believed that human rights work begins with education and must include taking action and being of service.

According to Noah, “the inception of UHRI sits at the convergence of three of my long standing interests: human rights, languages, and Nigeria.” He was looking up a Nigerian translation of the UDHR on the UN website, when he realized there was no way to listen to the translation. He thought of the millions of people around the world who cannot read, and recognized a serious void in human rights information that he could actually help address.

Noah and Hope Rieser Farley just happened to connect about this issue, and after chasing some connections and a meeting at the UN, they registered UHRI as a 501(c)3 nonprofit in 2016. Noah and Hope got to work, and Noah spent countless hours doing two of his favorite things: connecting with people around the world and leveraging technology to ensure that as many people as possible could access human rights information. Noah’s and Hope’s partnership with the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (https://www.ohchr.org) led to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights audio app (UDHR.audio) which offers translations and recordings from all over the world to accompany the UN’s 570 written translations as well as new translations that had not yet been done.

Over the last decade, Noah’s effort, with the amazing support of UHRI interns, volunteers and collaborators, has reached people in 187countries on every continent with recordings of the UDHR in 313 languages. In turn, the recordings have been shared hundreds of thousands of times. Noah’s goal was to have the UDHR recorded in all of its 500+ existing translations, but he soon encountered missing translations and others that needed revision. So he turned to that issue as well garnering volunteers and partners across the globe to help translate, review and record.

This past year, as he experienced the daily struggle of a terminal degeneragive disease, Noah achieved his most proudest accomplishment—linking this information to on the ground human rights organizations across the globe. Working closely with Malcolm Wright, one of our amazing facilitators and collaborators, he built in links to nearly 1000 human rights organizations across 187 countries so that anyone accessing our udhr.audio app could then choose to get more information, involved or even get help with issues they are facing.

Today, you’ll see some of the other milestones UHRI has reached under Noah’s passionate leadership and direction. Noah built a human rights education portal (https://hreportal.com/) in partnership with Los Angeles Unified School District. Together with Hope, they curated an online portal of resources and original historical documents, so that educators around the world, and especially in the US, can feel equipped to teach about human rights. Noah believed this to be the largest portal of HRE resources at the time with over 1100 curated items for students and teachers to access.

Noah and Hope knew that it was important to take time to unpack all of the human rights information and connect it to our immediate lives. So we have an established Intergroup dialogue program to help communities unpack local human rights challenges and build bridges toward social justice. A summary and link to the latest dialogue series are below. Our trained team of facilitators are actively addressing the politically divisive world we living in, and invite us to uphold the very premise of human rights through the same values Noah held dear: dialogue, empathy, curiousity and action.

We are still reeling from this loss of a dedicated leader, partner and friend, but we are committed to carrying his legacy forward with UHRI. Thank you for taking time to reflect on Noah’s legacy at UHRI and for being part of our Human Rights Day celebration. Your support is the key to expanding human rights education, dialogue, and access. If our work resonates with you, please consider a gift to UHRI. Your support will immediately help us continue our core mission through:

• Free Democracy Dialogues (donations of $300 support one dialogue session facilitated for the community for free)

• New UDHR language recordings ($500 supports one new translation and recording from start to publish)

• Operating funds ($1000 + secures unrestricted operating support to bring on full-time staff to carry forward UHRI’s core mission)

Help achieve the goal of universal human rights by volunteering with UHRI or making a tax-deductible donation.

Call for speakers!

If you are a native speaker and would be interested in recording the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in one of these languages, please contact us at info@uhri.ngo, with “Language recording” in the subject.

Achuar Chicham Achuar-Shiwiar Aja Akan Akan (Akuapem) Akan (Asante) Albanian Altai (Southern) Amahuaca Amarakaeri Arabela Aromanian; Arumanian; Macedo-Romanian Asháninka Ashéninka, Pichis Awa-Cuaiquer Aymara Azerbaijani Bamanankan Baoulé Belarusian Bemba Berber Bicolano, Central Bora Bosnian Breton Bushi Cebuano Central Khmer Chachi Chamorro Chayahuita Cherokee Chichewa; Chewa; Nyanja Chickasaw Chuukese Corsican Dinka Dzongkha Estonian Ewe Fijian Fon Friulian Ga Galician Garífuna Georgian Guarani Gujarati Haitian; Haitian Creole Hawaiian Hiligaynon Icelandic Ido Igbo Iloko Kabardian Kanuri Kazakh Khasi Kirghiz; Kyrgyz Komi Kpelle Kurdish Ladino Lao Luba-Lulua Macedonian Madurese Malagasy Maltese Mapudungun Marshallese Mende Mi'kmaq; Micmac Mongolian Nahuatl Navajo; Navaho Ndonga Nepali Nivkh Nyamwezi Nyankole Nzima Oromo Pidgin, Nigerian Pulaar Sinhala; Sinhalese Somali Tajik Telugu Thai Tibetan Tigrinya Tok Pisin Tonga (Chitonga) Totonac, Papantla Tsonga Tswana Turkmen Tuva Tzeltal Tzotzil Uighur; Uyghur Urarina Uzbek Vai Venda Venetian Veps Vietnamese Waray Wayuu Xhosa Yagua Yakut Yanesha' Yanomamà Yao Yapese Yoruba Zapotec (Güilá) Zapotec (Miahuatlán) Zhuang; Chuang