Canadian Museum for Human Rights
national museum
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR; French: Musée canadien pour les droits de la personne) is a Canadian Crown corporation and national museum located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, adjacent to The Forks. The purpose of the museum is to "explore the subject of human rights with a special but not exclusive reference to Canada, to enhance the public's understanding of human rights, to promote respect for others and to encourage reflection and dialogue."
Established in 2008 through the enactment of Bill C-42, an amendment of The Museums Act of Canada, the CMHR is the first new national museum created in Canada since 1967, and it is Canada's first national museum ever to be located outside the National Capital Region. The Museum held its opening ceremonies on 19 September 2014.
The Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is the charitable organization responsible for attracting and maintaining all forms of philanthropic contributions to the Museum.
History
Development
The late Izzy Asper—a Canadian lawyer, politician, and founder of the now-defunct media conglomerate Canwest Global Communications—is credited with the idea and vision to establish the CMHR, having first come up with the idea on 18 July 2000 to build the museum. Asper hoped it would become a place where students from across Canada could come to learn about human rights. 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. Working on his idea for three years, Asper had a thorough feasibility study conducted by museum experts from around Canada.
In 2003, Asper established the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, a private charitable organization, to build the CMHR. 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. 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. The Asper Foundation donated $20 million.
“Canadian Museum for Human Rights” enters the record as national museum. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Canadian, Museum and Human can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Canadian Museum for Human Rights” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Canadian, Museum and Human provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q630212. VIAF identifies the subject as 128963963. The Library of Congress control number is no2012146278. Authority coordinates are 49.891, -97.131. 6 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008, 1967, 2014 and 2000.
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This entry incorporates text from “Canadian Museum for Human Rights” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.