“Jumping through hoops” is the sort of thing that kids who really want to shape their own education will do. My daughter had to definitely jump through hoops to arrange for her semester abroad in high school. I imposed some additional requirements of my own – but insisted that my daughter do all of the talking with school staff on her own.
So I think that the independent study suggestion is a good one --and that if OP is sincerely motivated by her desire to do a human rights project as opposed to being sick of high school and looking for a way out – then I would think that OP would be willing to jump through the hoops.