The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) is a Canadian non-governmental organization and lobbying group focused on issues of human rights. The RWCHR's name is inspired by Raoul Wallenberg.
Based in Montreal, the RWCHR has advised policies in Canada and Europe. Their advocacy aligns closely with the foreign policy of the United States and Israel. A large part of their work is in lobbying for "Magnitsky-style" economic sanctions on adversary nations such as Russia, China and Iran, and training groups in other countries to advocate for them. Starting in 2026, RWCHR has also made public statements in support of Donald Trump's regime change efforts against Venezuela and Iran, corresponding with the 2026 United States intervention in Venezuela and the 2026 Iran War.
The RWCHR was founded by human rights lawyer and former Canadian Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler in 2015. The first Raoul Wallenberg All-Party Parliamentary Caucus for Human Rights was launched in Canada in 2017.
Themes The RWCHR's mission is to mobilize a "unique international consortium" of academics, activists, lawyers, jurists, Parliamentarians, NGOs, citizens and students. The RWCHR's mission statement is organized around five themes, based on Raoul Wallenberg's humanitarian legacy. Each theme is co-chaired by a leading jurist, parliamentarian, advocate or citizen in the country of Wallenberg's Honorary Citizenship. The honorary co-chairs are Elie Wiesel (US), Rosalie Abella (Canada), Meir Shamgar (Israel) and Göran Persson (Sweden). All of the RWCHR's activity relates to one or more of the below themes.
Heroes of humanity The RWCHR believes in a "moral imperative and historic responsibility" to pay tribute to those they call "heroes of humanity" who put their lives at risk for human rights. Notable "heroes of humanity" that the RWCHR has made efforts to commemorate are Raoul Wallenberg, Boris Nemtsov and Elie Wiesel.
Raoul Wallenberg
According to the RWCHR, Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who has been alleged by some to have saved 100,000 Hungarian Jews during The Holocaust, represents how one man with the 'compassion to care and the courage to act' can save more lives than the entire international bystander community. Other historical analyses have suggested that the figures of Jews saved by Wallenberg were far lower. Notably in a 2004 paper, Hungarian historian and Holocaust survivor Randolph L. Braham alleged that 7,000 to 9,000 Jews were saved by Wallenberg, while Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer has offered a figure of 4,500. Wallenberg can also be said, according to the RWCHR, to have foreshadowed the foundational principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. Further, Wallenberg serves to highlight the plight of political prisoners because once the Red Army arrived to liberate Hungary, Wallenberg, a liberator himself, was imprisoned never to be heard from again. Wallenberg's fate remains unknown due to Russia's unwillingness to reveal KGB archives.
RWCHR's chair, Irwin Cotler, served as the chair of the International Commission on the Fate and Whereabouts of Raoul Wallenberg writing a 1,200-page report which presented "incontrovertible" evidence that Wallenberg did not die in 1947 (as the Soviets claimed), "compelling" evidence that he was alive in the 1950s and 1960s, and "credible" evidence that he lived until the 1970s and 1980s. More recently, the RWCHR joined a legal action to appeal a Russian court ruling that denied Wallenberg's family access to documents that may reveal his fate. The RWCHR's team has also authored recent Op-Eds, like the ones in The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post, on the need to remember this Wallenberg.
According to Canadian Senator Sheila Finestone and House of Commons proceedings, the RWCHR's chair was consequential in getting the Canadian Government to adopt a Raoul Wallenberg Commemorative Day, which is held annually on 17 January, the day Wallenberg was captured by the Red Army. The RWCHR also co-sponsors the annual International Raoul Wallenberg Roundtable.
Boris Nemtsov
Boris Nemtsov, a Russian liberal politician that opposed Vladimir Putin, was assassinated on 27 February 2015 in central Moscow weeks after expressing concern that Putin would try to assassinate him. Nemtsov was a harsh critic of Putin's corruption and his annexation of Crimea and a strong advocate for democracy and the adoption of the Magnitsky Act sanctions against Russia.
The RWCHR has taken steps to commemorate Nemtsov. On 8 February 2018, the RWCHR co-hosted a screening of the documentary "Nemtsov" at Queen's Park, Toronto, Canada, preceding a discussion with the RWCHR's chair, Vladimir Kara-Murza and Peter MacKay. On 9 March 2016, the RWCHR co-sponsored the first annual Boris Nemtsov Memorial Russia Freedom Forum. The RWCHR has also co-authored an Op-Ed in the Ottawa Citizen urging the Canadian Government to follow the United States and Lithuania's lead in adopting Nemtsov commemorations by doing such things as renaming a park or bridge.
Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel is a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner who dedicated his life to giving a voice to victims of the Holocaust and speaking out against recent genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia and Darfur. Wiesel said, "there may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest". The RWCHR's chair worked closely with Wiesel for over 50 years helping to, after Wiesel's death on 2 July 2016, create 'Elie Wiesel Park' at the busiest intersection in Côte-St-Luc, Québec. The RWCHR has also written numerous Op-Eds and participated in events and galas dedicated to commemorating Wiesel.
Holocaust and genocide The RWCHR seeks to prevent atrocities similar to the Holocaust by remembering and acting upon the lessons related to it. On 4 May 2016, The RWCHR and the International March of the Living co-chaired the International Nuremberg Symposium at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland on the "Double Entendre of Nuremberg: the Nuremberg of Hate and the Nuremberg of Justice". The "Never Again" Declaration, which highlights some of the following universal lessons, was unanimously adopted at the Symposium: the danger of forgetting and the responsibility to remember, the danger of genocide denial and the responsibility to speak truth to power and repudiate false witness, the danger of impunity and the responsibility to bring war criminals to justice, the danger of the betrayal of the elites, the danger of assaults on the vulnerable, the danger of state-sanctioned incitement to hate, the danger of the bystander community and the danger of silence and indifference in the face of evil, the responsibility to act, prevent, protect and intervene, the responsibility to pay tribute to the rescuers, and the responsibility to respect the legacy of survivors.
The RWHCR has mounted an advocacy campaign to highlight these universal lessons. Accordingly, numerous Op-Eds have been written by RWCHR staff members relating these universal lessons to past and contemporary atrocities. Examples include articles in the National Post and Huffington Post about the lessons of the Rwandan genocide, implementing the lessons of the Holocaust to combat anti-semitism, and the international community's failure to invoke the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in Syria.
The RWCHR hosts, organizes and participates in many events that pertain to the Holocaust and genocides more generally. For example, on 1 March 2018, the RWCHR co-organized an event with the Montreal Holocaust Museum, the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism and the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies featuring a discussion with Payam Akhavan and Bob Rae to raise awareness and discuss the responsibility to protect the Rohingya, victims of mass persecution in Myanmar. On the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Canada's confederation, the RWCHR endorsed and participated in an event which saw the Armenian, Ukrainian, Jewish, Rwandan and Greek communities of Canada come together at the Armenian Community Centres in Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver to discuss the role Canada should play in human rights today. Other examples include the RWCHR partnering with Vanier College to host the 25thand 26th Annual Vanier Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide.
As of June 2025 the RWCHR denies the Gaza genocide, instead blaming the humanitarian crisis and civilian casualties on Hamas, putting it at odds with the United Nations, Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders and The Lemkin Institute for Study of Genocide.
Democracy
The RWCHR advocates for fighting against authoritarianism and populism, which is seen as a threat to liberal democracy. On 26 May 2017, the RWCHR became a signatory to the Prague Appeal for Democratic Renewal, a declaration issued by the International Coalition for Democratic Renewal which calls for the mobilization of a coalition of conscience in defence of democracy. The RWCHR is also a sponsor of the Magnitsky Act.
The RWCHR hosts, organizes and participates in many events that pertain to the protection of democracy. Since 2016, the RWCHR has been a co-sponsor of the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. At the 10th Annual Geneva Summit, the RWCHR's chair gave the summit's closing remarks and presented Vladimir Kara-Murza with the Geneva Summit 2018 Courage Award. The RWCHR also participated in the 2017 Oslo Freedom Forum discussing "Democracy and the Rule of Law". In May 2017, the RWCHR joined forces with the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Amnesty International Canada and the United Committee of Armenian Organizations of Quebec to host Rights City/Montréal, ville des droits humains, which comprises three major events to celebrate Montreal's role in advancing human rights and democracy. To discuss the threat illiberal populism and authoritarianism pose to academic freedom, the RWCHR and its chair participated in the Canadian Science Policy Conference in Ottawa alongside Home Hoodfar and Viviana Fernandez. In August 2017, the RWCHR helped host Vietnamplify, a conference that highlights the fight for human rights in Vietnam. On 7 October 2017, the RWCHR played a role in highlighting the humanitarian crisis caused by the turn to authoritarianism in Burundi by inviting Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa to Ottawa for a press conference and meeting with Parliamentarians.
Political prisoners The RWCHR mobilizes international advocacy in concert with other international human rights bodies, governments and NGOs to defend political prisoners around the world. According to the RWCHR's chair, the "plight of a political prisoner serves as a looking glass into the human rights violator country that imprisons them". The RWCHR serves as international legal counsel to the following political prisoners: Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger imprisoned for exercising his right to freedom of expression; Leopoldo Lopez, a leader of the Venezuelan opposition currently in exile; Dr. Wang Bingzhang, a Chinese pro-democracy dissident currently in Chinese prison; Sun Qian, a Falun Gong practitioner, Saeed Malekpour, a Canadian permanent resident who was imprisoned in Evin Prison in Iran for developing and hosting a pornographic website while in Iran until 2019; Ayatollah Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi, imprisoned in Evin Prison for advocating for separation of religion and government; the Baháʼí 7, imprisoned in Evin Prison for practicing their Baháʼí Faith and promulgating religious freedom. In 2017, the RWCHR used Human Rights Day to co-host a press conference with the Raoul Wallenberg All-Party Parliamentary Caucus for Human Rights to highlight the cases of political prisoners.
Women's rights