Human Rights Initiative


The New York City Human Rights Initiative

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA is working as part of the New York City Human Rights Initiative, a coalition of more than 70 organizations, to pass the Human Rights in Government Operations Audit Law, or Human Rights GOAL (currently Intro 512). This law will incorporate human rights principles into New York City governance to eliminate discrimination in city agencies and the services they provide. Human Rights GOAL is a tool for working locally to achieve the vision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that Amnesty activists are also fighting for globally. How does Human Rights GOAL parallel other Amnesty priorities? Read on!

SECURITY OF PERSON
UDHR Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

Current Amnesty Case: Akbar Mohammadi and Ahmed Batebi were arrested in a brutal crackdown against a peaceful demonstration by students in Tehran during which police killed and injured students. During their incarceration, both allege being brutally beaten, Batebi to unconsciousness. Mohammadi claims to have been suspended by his arms and whipped on the feet with cables. We write on their cases to protect them and to urge the Iranian government to conform to international standards regarding use of force.

Police Brutality in NYC: In 1997, New York City police officers assaulted Haitian immigrant Abner Louima after a scuffle at a nightclub in Brooklyn. Two officers beat Louima in the patrol car on the way to the station. At the precinct house, he was taken into a bathroom where officers brutally raped him anally with a broomstick, causing devastating internal injuries. Officers at the station colluded in a cover-up of the events. Charges against the officers included the use of torture.
**New York Times - 9/23/2002

HEALTH CARE
UDHR Article 25a: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care, and necessary social services.

Current Amnesty Action: In February 2002, violence erupted in the state of Gujarat in western India. Scores of Muslim women and girls were sexually violated-raped, gang-raped, or mutilated. Many saw their family members killed and their homes and businesses destroyed. Some medical professionals were reported to have participated in this violence and disregarded reports and obvious signs of sexual assaults of women in their care. Victims could not count on receiving medical assistance and cannot rely on medical/forensic evidence when pursuing justice for the crimes perpetrated against them.

Disease, Death, and Discrimination in NYC: New Yorkers in predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods have significantly higher mortality rates for diabetes, stroke, pneumonia, cancer, and heart disease than those in white areas. A 2004 report by the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene attributes these disparities to limited access to health care and poor environmental conditions, among other factors. Yet every year during budget time, cutbacks in health funding hit minority communities hardest. ** New York Times: 7/16/04 "New York City Health Disparities"
**NYC Dept of Health and Mental Hygiene press release: (full report)

EMPLOYMENT
UDHR Article 23a: Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

Current Amnesty Action: Sara Poroj and Sergio Rivera, who work for the Exhumations Program of human rights organization Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (GAM), Group of Mutual Support, have been intimidated and threatened in what appears to be an effort to stop their work to exhume secret mass graves in Guatemala. They have been followed while doing their work and Poroj was held at gunpoint while her hotel room was searched. The human rights situation in Guatemala has been marred by continually high levels of abuses against human rights and land activists, members of the legal community, and journalists who are working to combat impunity and defend human rights.

Harassment of Women Workers in NYC: Some 130,000 New Yorkers-mostly women of color-are working in low-level clerical or manual jobs in return for their public assistance benefits through the city's Work Experience Program (WEP). When five women were sexually harassed or experienced gender discrimination in their WEP jobs and sued the city for violating their civil rights, the city argued that they were grant recipients, not regular employees, and therefore not entitled to the same protections as other workers.
**New York Law Journal - 2/24/2004 (US Ct of Appeals - Second Circ overturns district court ruling)
**New York Times - 2/17/04

HOUSING
UDHR Article 25a: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services.

Current Amnesty Action: Among the catastrophic human rights violations being wrought against settled ethnic groups in Darfur, Sudan, is the systematic razing of their homes, and villages, by the Janjawid militia. More than 1.5 million civilians have been internally displaced by this conflict. Many refugees fear going back to their homes. Those who have risked return to their villages have found only the charred remains of the lives they once led. Violence against people and also against the places where they live and work attract our concern and outrage; we write to protect the full integrity of the lives of these people.

Dangerous Housing in NYC: Through its "scattered site" housing program, the city's Department of Homeless Services is reported to be paying some notoriously negligent landlords as much as $3,000 a month to house homeless families in substandard housing. This practice puts the most vulnerable New Yorkers in dangerous, unhealthy apartments, displaces existing tenants who were paying lower rents, and lucratively rewards slumlords.
**City Limits Magazine: March 2002

FIGHT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN NEW YORK CITY!
Help pass this historic legislation and build a human rights culture in our city.

The New York City Human Rights Initiative is a citywide coalition of more than 70 organizations coordinated by the Urban Justice Center Human Rights Project, The Women of Color Policy Network, the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International USA, Legal Momentum, and the New York City Civil Liberties Union.

For more information, visit www.nychri.org, call (646) 602-5628/5629, or e-mail info@nychri.org,