The ambition of the Human Rights and Education Centre (HRREC) is to reach further in order to serve and support the needs of tomorrow’s students and community partners—with increased and enhanced program offerings, advocacy with global impact, and more intensive training reaching more communities.

Help us in our efforts to sustain the important work of the HRREC in the future by considering these flagship initiatives to support.

The University of Ottawa joined the Scholars at Risk (SAR) Network in 2014 and hosts scholars through the program based on one-year appointments.

Scholars at Risk is an international network of higher education institutions dedicated to protecting threatened scholars, preventing attacks on higher education communities and promoting academic freedom worldwide. The network protects scholars suffering grave threats to their lives, liberty and well-being by arranging positions of sanctuary at institutions in the network.

Help us in our efforts to promote human rights and academic freedom in welcoming scholars at risk and give them the freedom to pursue scholarship and research without discrimination, censorship, intimidation, or violence.

The Tokmakjian Humanitarian Award is a scholarship established by Shaunt Tokmakjian (JD ’14) to support students in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, at the University of Ottawa. During his time as a Faculty of Law student, Shaunt played an instrumental role in establishing the University of Ottawa Business Law Clinic. After graduating, he continued to be involved with the University community, serving as a director with the University of Ottawa Alumni Association in 2015, and was appointed to the University of Ottawa Board of Governors in 2020. As a descendent of Armenian Genocide survivors and a son of immigrant parents who came to Canada in search of a better life, Shaunt deeply understands and believes in the life-saving importance of humanitarian work, especially in relation to the recognition and prevention of mass atrocities. Shaunt generously created this award in acknowledgement of the significance of researching, recognizing and preventing mass atrocities.

The purpose of the fund is to award a scholarship to an undergraduate student enrolled in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, who is actively involved in mass atrocity research, recognition and prevention study or work, particularly through the Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa.

Recipients:

• 2026 — Théo Viltakis
• 2025 — Brynn Hopper

The Jacques Gaudreau endowment fund was established in 1992 in memory of Jacques Gaudreau (1947-1989), an officer of the Department of External Affairs, by his friends, colleagues and family. Initially the fund was used to award one or two prizes on an annual basis to undergraduate and graduate students in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa with the most outstanding mark or essay in the area of international human rights law. In 2015 the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, unit responsible for the fund, requested to transform it into a graduate scholarship that would benefit outstanding students in the Faculty of Law.

The purpose of the fund is to award a scholarship to a graduate (Masters or PhD) student in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa.

Help us in our efforts to provide our students with exceptional learning opportunities!

In 1981, upon the initiative of Yvon Beaulne, Canada’s former Ambassador to the United Nations, and with the support of Gordon Fairweather, then Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the idea of a human rights centre at the University of Ottawa was born. The Centre strives to bring together educators, researchers and students from other disciplines based on the need to approach issues regarding human rights from a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspective, both in order to respect such rights and to explore that which they require in a complex, interconnected world. The HRREC benefits from a bilingual and bijuridical environment. The Centre privileges research, teaching and outreach partnerships, with academic units, governmental and civil society organizations.

Help us in our efforts to provide our students with exceptional learning opportunities, generate research breakthroughs, remain competitive globally and offer a unique bilingual educational and cultural environment!