Rising where the Red and Assiniboine Rivers meet in the heart of Winnipeg at The Forks, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is the only national museum in western Canada and the only museum dedicated to the topic of global human rights issues.

The building has also dramatically reshaped the city's skyline since it opened. The Tower of Hope touches the sky above the building's curved glass wings, drawing the eye long before you're anywhere near the door.

Once inside, glowing alabaster ramps carry you up through 10 interactive galleries, including Indigenous Perspectives, Turning Points for Humanity and Inspiring Change, each sharing human rights stories from Canada and around the world.

This isn't just a museum where you learn about the past – it's a space built to help you imagine a better future. Whether it's your first time or you're a repeat visitor, here's what to know before you go.

Tips For Your Visit to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights

• The Canadian Museum for Human Rights offers several themed self-guided tours to help you dive into the stories that matter most to you, each taking about 90 minutes across five stops.
• Printed brochures for each tour are available at the visitor services desk, and you can follow an audio-guided tour using the museum's free app, available in English or French.
• The tours share some of the same galleries, so it's easy to combine two tours in a single visit, if you want to explore more.
• Make sure to stop at Cloud Coffee (level five) or Bistro Boréal (level 1) when you visit.

Museum Highlights Tour

Galleries on this tour:

• What Are Human Rights?
• Canadian Journeys
• Breaking the Silence
• Rights Today
• Inspiring Change

Start at the Human Rights Timeline in What Are Human Rights?, where a wall traces 50 people and 100 events, ideas and measures connected to human rights around the world. From there, head to Canadian Journeys for One Woman's Resistance, a video on Viola Desmond's decades-long fight for justice after her arrest in a segregated Nova Scotia theatre. Viola is featured on the front of the Canadian ten dollar bill with the museum on the back.

Next, the interactive Study Table in Breaking the Silence shows how ordinary people have worked to break the silence around mass atrocities and genocides. Use the digital features to read their stories and learn about their experiences.

In Rights Today, the Human Rights Defenders screen profiles Canadians who've built careers defending human rights, including Clayton Thomas-Müller, Marina Nemat and Vincenzo Pietropaolo. Finish in the Inspiring Change exhibit where you'll find the I Imagine Cards, where you can leave a written or drawn reflection of your visit to the museum on the wall for future visitors to find.

Resisting Anti-Black Racism Tour

Galleries on this tour:

• What Are Human Rights?
• Canadian Journeys
• Turning Points for Humanity
• Inspiring Change

Begin at the Human Rights Timeline in the What Are Human Rights? gallery, and look for the Slavery Abolition Act of 1807, the civil rights movement and Nelson Mandela's anti-apartheid work to learn more about anti-black racism.

In Canadian Journeys, One Woman's Resistance tells Viola Desmond's story through the specific lens of anti-black racism in Canada, while the Sleeping Car Porters stop uses digital touchscreens to explore the black rail workers who unionized against workplace discrimination.

Turning Points for Humanity's digital books compare two grassroots pushbacks against segregation: South Africa's anti-apartheid movement and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. End in Inspiring Change with Prom Night in Georgia, the story of how Mareshia Rucker and her friends organized their school's first integrated prom in 2013.

Art and Human Rights Tour

Galleries on this tour:

• Indigenous Perspectives
• Canadian Journeys
• Breaking the Silence
• Rights Today
• Inspiring Change

In the Indigenous Perspectives gallery, take in the size of Trace, a clay and steel sculpture by Rebecca Belmore, alongside a beaded fire bag by Jennine Krauchi and the Spirit Panels on the circular theatre's exterior.

Canadian Journeys holds Reclaiming Power and Place, an artwork by Jaime Black-Morsette and KC Adams grounded in The REDress Project that advocates for the rights of Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people.

From there, Bitter Memories of Childhood, a sculpture by Anatoli Haidamaka and Petro Drozdovsky in Breaking the Silence, commemorates children's suffering during the Holodomor.

Rights Today features the photography of Vincenzo Pietropaolo, who has spent his career advocating for labour, migrant and disability rights in Canada and abroad.

The tour ends in Inspiring Change with Grandmothers in Solidarity, a yarn-bombed tree that shows how everyday fibre art has raised awareness of human rights issues in local communities.

Bonus: Stop in the Action Counts gallery to see The Witness Blanket, an art installation that honours the children who were into the Indian residential school system in Canada.

2SLGBTQI+ Rights Tour

Galleries on this tour:

• What Are Human Rights?
• Canadian Journeys
• Protecting Rights in Canada
• Turning Points for Humanity

Start at the Human Rights Timeline in the What Are Human Rights? gallery, where the Stonewall riots and Harvey Milk mark pivotal moments in queer history.

In Canadian Journeys, Two-Spirit Resurgence uses touchscreens to explore Two-Spirit people, like Albert McLeod, reclaiming Indigenous gender and sexuality traditions suppressed through colonization, while Dismantling Canada's LGBT Purge tells the story of the decades-long Purge, when tens of thousands of federal employees were surveilled, interrogated and often demoted or fired.

In Protecting Rights in Canada, Ruling on Sexual Orientation covers Delwin Vriend's Supreme Court challenge and the legal protections that followed for queer Canadians.

The tour wraps up in Turning Points for Humanity with Digital Books, spotlighting two international examples: Nepal's Blue Diamond Society and the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees.

Plan Your Visit to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights

• Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Mondays.
• Admission: Adult general admission is $23, and there are discounted and complimentary admission types available, along with free days detailed at humanrights.ca/visit.
• Getting there: 85 Israel Asper Way, Winnipeg.
• Pick your tour: Grab a themed brochure at the Museum, or follow along on the free, self-guided app, complete with audio tours.
• Special exhibits: Love in a Dangerous Time (open until January 1, 2027) and The Witness Blanket (on display until September 2027)
• Food: Bistro Boréal (level 1) and Cloud Coffee (level five) are your on-site options; food and drink aren't allowed in galleries or on the ramps.

Whichever story pulls you in, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights has a tour built for it. Pick up a brochure, choose your path and let the museum do the rest.