Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Call to Action: Endorse the UN Coalition Reports by 11 August

The following is a list of coalition reports submitted to the United Nations in April 2010. All reports are currently open for additional endorsements.

To add an organizational or individual endorsement, please send your name, affiliation, and email address, stating your wish to be added to the endorsements, before Wednesday, August 11th at 5 PM EST. These should be sent to Sarah Paoletti, paoletti@law.upenn.edu and Laura Baum, lbaum@ushrnetwork.org.

The updated list reflecting additional endorsements will be provided to the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights and should be substituted for the initial list of endorsements prior to the posting of reports on their website. These additional endorsements will also be reflected in the USHRN’s compilation publication of coalition stakeholder reports that will be circulated among State delegates, the media, international NGOs and INGO’s, as well as the US Department of State to call attention to the full scope and high level of civil society engagement around these important human rights issues.

These include an overarching report seeking to highlight the rights and recommendations made by the submitting stakeholders.

US Human Rights Network Overarching UPR Report (Summary)

Civil Rights
The coalition of stakeholder submitting this report is calling for the full recognition and fulfillment of the United States’obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (“ICERD”) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”), particularly in areas of racial discrimination, voting rights, housing and community development, education, employment environmental justice and healthcare. The coordinating organization, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, is a non-profit civil rights organization established in 1963.

Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
The CERD Task Force, a subgroup of the US Human Rights Network, was formed in 2007 to coordinate a national civil society shadow report that was submitted to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 2008. The Task Force is made up of organizations that represent the leading voices in human rights and racial justice. Our core mission is to ensure the effective implementation of the ICERD and its key obligations at the nationaland local level.

Corporate Accountability
The stakeholders coordinating this submission are dedicated to ensuring the U.S. discharges its obligations to respect and protect human rights in the context of transnational business activities, and analyzes U.S. legislative, regulatory, adjudicative, administrative and policy measures to respect and protect in cases where the actions, decisions or failures of companies under the U.S.’ effective control (or incorporated or organized under US law) have lead to human rights abuses in other countries.

Criminal Justice
The organizations submitting this report are dedicated to promoting fair juvenile and criminal justice policies in the United States that are consistent with international human rights standards.

Death Penalty (Summary)
This cluster report provides information on the application of the death penalty in the United States, with particular focus on discrimination, arbitrariness, violations of the ICJ's judgment in Avena and Other Mexican Nationals, executions of individuals with mental disabilities, and death row conditions.

Disability (Summary)
This report was prepared by organizations of people with disabilities working at national and local levels for human rights and individual self-determination.

Economic & Social Rights (Summary)
The coalition of stakeholders submitting this report are calling for the recognition, protection and fulfillment of social and economic rights in the United States, including the rights to education, health, housing, work, and social security. The coordinating organization, the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, is a non-profit human rights organization established in 2004.

Education (Summary)
The coalition of stakeholders submitting this report, many of whom have worked collaboratively in the past, is dedicated to the promotion of the right to education and educational equity throughout the United States. The coordinating organization, the Poverty Race Research Action Council, was established in 1989.

Environmental Justice
This report is submitted by a coalition of stakeholders dedicated to the implementation of human rights obligations in the area of environmental justice, and addresses how communities of color and low-income communities in the United States are disproportionately burdened by environmentally harmful human activities and their adverse health consequences. The main submitting organizations for this report are the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment (CRPE) and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI). Founded in 1989, CRPE is an environmental justice litigation organization dedicated to helping grassroots groups across the United States attack head on the disproportionate burden of pollution borne by poor people and people of color. Founded in 1976, NYLPI is a nonprofit, civil rights law firm that strives for social justice through impact litigation, community organizing and advocacy.

Foreign Policy
This report is submitted by a coalition of stakeholders concerned that U.S. foreign policy relationships and assistance to Colombia, Haiti and Puerto Rico have caused human rights violations.

Gender and Racial Inequalities in the Right to Decent Work (Summary)
The coalition of stakeholders submitting this joint report are dedicating to ensuring that the government take specific steps to ensure the human right to work, and account for the needs of women and racial and ethnic minorities in securing decent work. The coordinating organization, the Urban Justice Center, was established in 1984.

Housing (Summary)
The coalition of stakeholders submitting this report are dedicated to promoting the full respect for, protection of, and fulfillment of the human right to adequate housing on the basis of non-discrimination. The coordinating organization, the National Law Center on Homelessness Poverty, was established in 1989 to serve as the legal arm of the nationwide movement to prevent and end homelessness in the United States.

Katrina Aftermath
The coalition of stakeholders submitting this report are concerned with decisions, policies, and actions by the US Government and its political subdivisions in connection with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and subsequent storms that have violated and continue to violate the human rights of people who lived or live in states bordering the Gulf of Mexico, including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The coordinating organizations are the Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, a non-governmental public interest law firm based in New Orleans, Louisiana that is dedicated to upholding the human right to live in a healthy environment, and the Gulf States Human Rights Working Group, a coalition of non-governmental organizations dedicated to advocating for adoption by the US Government of the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement as a domestic legal standard.

Labor (Summary)
The coalition of stakeholders submitting this report are trade unions, union representatives, organizations, and individuals dedicated to ensuring workplace rights through the protection and promotion of the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining for all workers.

Macroeconomics (Summary)
This submission focuses on the human rights implications of the financial crisis and subsequent domestic policy responses. In particular, it focuses on the human rights obligation to protect and fulfill economic and social rights as well as the need for transparency, accountability and participation in the making of macroeconomic policy. The coordinating organization, the Center for Women's Global Leadership, was established in 1989.

Migrant Labor
The coalition of stakeholders submitting this report are organizations, entities, and individuals committed to ensuring that all workers, regardless of the industry in which they work and regardless of their migration status, are entitled to all workplace rights and other fundamental rights connected to their status as migrant workers, without discrimination.

Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers (Summary)
The coalition of stakeholders submitting this report are civil society organizations that provide services to or advocate on behalf of the rights of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in the United States. The report was coordinated by The Advocates for Human Rights, which was established in 1983.

Police Misconduct in New York City
This report looks specifically at police brutality, racial profiling and racial disparity in policing practices in New York City, hilighting international calls for accountability, investigation, and reform, and noting the U.S.'s obligation to exercise due diligence in preventing police misconduct.

Political Repression
The submitting organizations and individuals are NGOs, professional, lay, and grassroots organizations and individuals committed to advancing freedom of speech, religion, and association.

Race and Health
The stakeholders submitting this report are dedicated to the elimination of racial health disparities in the United States.

Racial Profiling
The Rights Working Group (RWG) is a national coalition of over 260 organizations working at the national, state, and local/community level to ensure that everyone in the U.S. is guaranteed due process and human rights protections, regardless of citizenship or immigration status, race, national origin, religion or ethnicity. This report was prepared with contributions from a number of RWG members and allies in the fight against racial profiling.

Reproductive Rights
The coalition of stakeholders submitting this report work to advance women's sexual and reproductive health. The coordinating organization, the Center for Reproductive Rights, is a global legal organization founded in 1992 and dedicated to advancing women's reproductive health, self-determination and dignity as basic human rights.

Treaty Ratification (Ratification Summary) (Implementation Summary)
The coalition of stakeholders submitting this report are dedicated to promoting U.S. ratification of, and full compliance with, international human rights treaties. The coordinating organization, the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute, was established in 1998.

US Political Prisoners (Summary)
The coalition of stakeholders submitting this Report are dedicated to the freedom of political activists who were targeted by the United States Government through its COINTELPRO and to the criminal prosecution of those governmental officials involved in this governmental conspiracy. One of the coordinating organizations, The National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL), is an association formed in 1968 to serve as the Black Liberation movement's legal arm. It is made up of judges, law students, lawyers, legal activists and scholars. Noted clients included, Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, the Attica Brothers, Geronimo Pratt, and Mumia Abu Jamal. NCBL was also active in the anti-colonial, anti-apartheid movements in Africa. The co-coordinating organization, Malcolm X Center for Self Determination, is a community based, action center for grassroots human rights advocacy, training, and capacity building.Political prisoner work by the Center's membership dates back to 1965, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), civil rights/anti-war/anti-apartheid agenda. Since1991, it has brought together theoreticians, practitioners and consumers to identify and promote human rights of the descendants of Africans formerly enslaved in North America (African Americans). It, and its longer-standing human rights activists membership, are among those initiating, lobbying, providing material support and organizing demonstrations essential to successful legal and political strategies for self determination.

Institutional Report Summaries:
Indigenous Rights by the International Indian Treaty Council

UPR REPORTS (in PDF)
US Human Rights Network Overarching UPR Report
CERD Joint Report USA
Civil Rights Joint Report USA
Corporate Accountibility Joint Report USA
Criminal Justice Joint Report USA
Death Penalty Joint Report USA
Disability Joint Report USA
Economic & Social Rights Joint Report USA
Education Joint Report USA
Environmental Justice Joint Report USA
Foreign Policy Joint Report USA
Housing Joint Report USA
Katrina Aftermath Joint Report USA
Labor Joint Report USA
Macroeconomics Joint Report USA
Migrant Labor Joint Report USA
Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers Joint Report USA
Political Repression Joint Report USA
Race and Health Joint Report USA
Racial Profiling Joint Report USA
Reproductive Rights Joint Report USA
Right to Work Joint Report USA
Treaty Ratification Joint Report USA
US Political Prisoners Joint Report USA




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