AI’s vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards.

In pursuit of this vision, AI’s mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights.

AI is independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion. It does not support or oppose any government or political system, nor does it support or oppose the views of the victims whose rights it seeks to protect. It is concerned solely with the impartial protection of human rights.

"[...] I chose the name of RIAS because it is most apt to the mission, but also in part because the acronym, "rias," is a Galician and Portuguese term meaning  "fjords," those inlets and outlets that connect the outermost reaches of the continent with the outest regions of the world. I think the term and the history of these topographic formations are emblematic of the mission of IASA and its RIAS.[...]"