The Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR) is an interdisciplinary research and teaching centre. It is a friendly community of scholars and visiting practitioners who have a shared focus on the real world challenges of putting human rights into practice and protecting human rights defenders at risk. A focus on human rights defending and defenders shapes all the Centre’s work.

The Centre is both genuinely interdisciplinary and committed to practice. The work of the Centre is international in breadth and draws on the University of York’s rich tradition of rigorous and engaged scholarship in the fields of development, post-war reconstruction, public policy, public health, disability rights, gender and women's rights, environmental issues, and refugee law. The Centre has particularly strong links to theDepartment of Politics and York Law School.