Amnesty International USA

WHEREAS the Latino/Latina communities (understood as those of Hispanic descendent, including Chicano/a, South and Central American, Mexican and Hispanic Caribbean) are currently the largest minority group in the United States representing 12.5% of the national population, and more than 25% in some cities and states, according to the US Census 2000 (U.S. Census Bureau);

WHEREAS the Latino/Latina communities are among the most marginalized groups in the country;

WHEREAS the Latino/Latina communities are largely underrepresented at AIUSA;

WHEREAS AIUSA has expressed its commitment on advancing Latino/Latina participation in the organization through

the Multicultural Organizational Development (MCOD) Plan 1999 - 2009 and Beyond, approved by the 1999 Annual General Meeting;

WHEREAS the AIUSA FY'03 budget included a part-time Latino/Latina Network Coordinator whose responsibilities were to build and sustain a distribution network of Latino/Latina organizations that receive AI's materials in Spanish and English through special mailings;

WHEREAS the position of Latino/Latina Network Coordinator was not filled after the resignation of the coordinator in early 2003, opening the opportunity for consultation with AIUSA's Multicultural Assessment Advisory Committee (MAAC) and the development of a focused plan for this network;

WHEREAS two projects in the 2003 Ralph J. Bunche Fellowship Program identified challenges in the Latino/Latina Network including lack of a coordinated approach, outdated materials, repetitive translations, and difficulty for groups to access translated materials;

WHEREAS AIUSA's FY'04 Budget Workplan provides resources for the Latino/Latina Network, for evaluation and follow-up from the two Bunche Fellow projects in 2003; and

WHEREAS the group of 27 AIUSA members and staff who met at the "Latino Working Group" during the 2003 AGM, agreed that the most important priority to strengthen opportunities for the engagement of Latino/Latina communities with AIUSA was having concrete, sufficiently funded, operational plans for outreach and coordination;

WHEREAS the Latino/Latina community is very diverse in terms of language, gender, social and economic status;

BE IT RESOLVED that AIUSA develop and implement for the 2005-2006 operational plan a strategy to outreach to Latinos/Latinas, taking into consideration the different subcultures within the Latino/Latina community, as well as AIUSA’s regional demographic differences and goals for program, action, membership and fundraising; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the AIUSA board of directors create an advisory committee for the development and implementation of the Latino/Latina strategic plan.