The Indian Institute of Human Rights (IIHR) was established as a constituent unit of the World Institution Building Programme (WIBP), an International Charity incorporated in March 1990 as a Public Charitable Trust at New Delhi. The WIBP decided to accord autonomy to the Indian Institute of Human Rights by advising to get the co-sponsorship of different Universities for launching need based programmes at Bachelor's, Master's as well as Doctoral levels.

Accordingly selected Universities in India were contacted by the functionaries and authorities of the Indian Institute of Human Rights inviting them to co-sponsor the birth of IIHR and for registering the IIHR Trust. The names of  these Universities were announced during the Human Rights Day function on 10 December 1999 where the Post Graduate Programme in Human Rights of IIHR was formally inaugurated by Hon'ble Justice J S Verma, the then Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).