IPHR's main aim is to empower local civil society groups promoting human rights in different countries and help them make their concerns heard at the international level.

[1] IPHR was created in the spring of 2008 by a team of human rights practitioners[2] who had previously worked together for the Vienna-based International Helsinki Federation.

IPHR's cooperation with partner groups aims in particular at advancing the rights of vulnerable communities, such as ethnic and religious minorities; pro-democracy campaigners, civil society activists, NGO members and others who are subject to persecution.

IPHR currently carries out activities in relation to Central Asia, Russia, Belarus and other countries of the former Soviet Union.

IPHR is a member of several civil society networks, including the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue Between Cultures, the Human Rights and Democracy Network [1], the EU Fundamental Rights Platform [2], the Civic Solidarity Platform [3] and the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum [4] Archived 2021-07-29 at the Wayback Machine.