He also saw it as an opportunity to revitalize downtown Winnipeg and increase tourism to the city, as well as to raise understanding and awareness of human rights, promote respect for others, and encourage reflection, dialogue, and action.

[10] In 2003, Asper established the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, a private charitable organization, to build the CMHR.

[8] On 17 April, the 21st anniversary of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, an event was held at The Forks in Winnipeg where Asper first publicly announced the intent to create the CMHR.

It was announced as a joint partnership between The Asper Foundation and the governments of Canada, Manitoba, and of Winnipeg, as well as land donated by the Forks Renewal Corporation.

[11][10] Prime Minister Jean Chrétien committed the first $30 million towards the capital cost, and private fundraising was soon overseen by the Friends of the CMHR.

Later that year, on 7 October, Izzy Asper died suddenly at the age of 71 on his way to announce the architectural competition in Vancouver for the CMHR's design.

On 20 April 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the Government of Canada's intention to make the CMHR into a national museum.

[28] The Canadian Museum for Human Rights has requested an additional $35 million in capital funding from the federal government to cover shortfalls.

[31] The building's ground floor provides orientation and meeting space, a gift shop, restaurant, and visitor services.

Visitors are led through the Great Hall, then a series of vast spaces and ramps, before culminating in the "Tower of Hope", a tall spire protruding from the CMHR.

Carved into the earth and dissolving into the sky on the Winnipeg horizon, the abstract ephemeral wings of a white dove embrace a mythic stone mountain of 450 million year old Tyndall limestone in the creation of a unifying and timeless landmark for all nations and cultures of the world.The base building was complete since the end of 2012.

Throughout the foundation work of the CMHR, medicine bags created by elders at Thunderbird House, in Winnipeg, were inserted into the holes made for piles and caissons to show respect for Mother Earth.

[41] On the fifth floor is the Carte International Reference Centre, the CMHR library "devoted to collecting and providing access to resources that support human rights learning and research.

In January 2009, lawyer Yude Henteleff was appointed to chair the museum's content advisory committee, made up of human rights experts and leaders from across Canada.

On 5 March 2013, a story produced by CBC TV (Manitoba) mentioned a document, "Gallery Profiles" (dated 12 September 2012), that confirmed some of the CMHR's proposed contents.

Beginning in December 2010, controversy erupted over plans for two permanent galleries dedicated to the Holocaust and the mistreatment of Indigenous peoples in Canada.

[58][59] The UCCLA sent postcards to Heritage Minister James Moore, which were criticized by Catherine Chatterley of the Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism for depicting those in favour of the Holocaust gallery as pigs.

"[64] Mohamed El Rashidy of the Canadian Arab Federation said the museum had to address Palestinian experiences, and "shouldn't fear stating the inconvenient truths and facts about history.

[66][67][68] She further explained that the purpose of the museum was not to be a memorial for the suffering of different groups, but to be a learning experience; for instance, the Holocaust exhibit introduces the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was drafted in direct response to it.

[72] From January 2015 until the middle of 2017 the management sometimes asked staff not to show any LGBT content on tours at the request of certain guests, including religious school groups, diplomats and donors.

[75][76] In October 2020, it was revealed some staff were told not to talk about pregnancy or abortion, in addition to censoring LGBT content, during some tours involving religious schools.