A major area of critical scholarship within human rights education (HRE) aims to discover HRE's revolutionary potential by questioning its relationship to the global human rights regime. However, the very concept of "human rights violations" remains underexamined. This article analyzes the use and function of human rights violations as pedagogical devices. Drawing from qualitative data collected in two public high schools in New York City (2014-2015), this study explores the limitations of teaching human rights through the legal definition of human rights violations. In doing so, HRE positions human rights violations primarily as manifestations of direct violence. We argue that to teach human rights violations also as expressions of structural violence can help students cultivate powerful and transformative forms of knowledge.