Stop Violence Against Women
Making Human Rights Meaningful in Our Communities
The international human rights system guarantees a range of rights to all human beings. Originally articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, this comprehensive vision is formally brought into law through a series of international treaties that governments can choose to ratify. But most people are not only unaware of which treaties their governments have adopted, they are unfamiliar with the basic rights to which they are entitled under international law—including the right to an adequate living standard, the right to education, the right to security of person, the right to leisure, and the right to be free from discrimination.
Recently, however, social justice activists working on a range of issues in the U.S. and elsewhere have begun to recognize the potential of human rights to support them in their work. Some groups have begun to focus on one of the most transformative aspects of international human rights treaties: the obligation of governments to pro-actively identify discrimination, and to implement remedies that fulfill the promise of human rights and prevent future violations. This means that governments must review existing and pending policies to ensure that they do not have discriminatory effects.
The United States has a disappointing record when it comes to treaty ratification. While our government has ratified the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention Against Torture (CAT), and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), it has done little to implement many of these treaties’ standards. And, thus far, the U.S. has failed to ratify the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and a number of other important international agreements.
Local treaty implementation is an innovative strategy that enables activists to bypass federal resistance to international human rights standards, and instead focuses on putting these standards to work right in our own communities by making local governments accountable to them. Especially in the current political climate, this may be a more effective means of making progress toward achieving the fundamental rights all human beings are due.
The New York City Human Rights Initiative
In New York City, AIUSA’s Women’s Human Rights
Program is one of five organizations currently coordinating
a campaign to pass a NYC law that will locally implement two
important human rights treaties – CEDAW and CERD. The
precedent for the New York City initiative was a successful
San Francisco mobilization of women’s human rights advocates
and local feminist activists. AIUSA's Western Regional Office
was a key participant in this effort, which achieved passage
of a city ordinance in 1998 that endorsed the principles of
CEDAW and created a framework for integrating them into city
governance. A task force comprised of community representatives
and public officials has since been overseeing gender analyses
of the employment practices, budget allocations, and service
provision of various city departments. Each of the six departments
that have completed a review thus far has come up with an
action plan, and has begun implementing concrete changes that
redress inequities.
Inspired by the San Francisco success, the New York City Human Rights Initiative was launched in 2002. While the San Francisco law focused exclusively on CEDAW, the New York campaign will break new ground by integrating the principles of the “women’s convention” and the convention on racial discrimination. Combining these two treaties will improve city policy for a broader cross-section of New Yorkers, and will be especially effective in countering discrimination against one of the most marginalized populations in the city: women of color. It also provides an opportunity for multi-issue, cross-community organizing, since the human rights framework addresses issues in all sectors of life.
In addition to AIUSA’s Women’s Program, the work of the coalition is currently coordinated by the Urban Justice Center Human Rights Project, the Women of Color Policy Network at NYU’s Wagner School, NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The New York City Human Rights Initiative is working with members of the New York City Council to introduce the legislation there sometime in the next year. The Initiative is also conducting workshops and presentations to educate local grass roots and advocacy organizations about the campaign and about the value of bringing human rights frameworks and tools to their work, as well as soliciting input from these groups as to what they would like this legislation to achieve.
Amnesty International has always worked to demonstrate that a single human rights standard must apply to all countries. AIUSA has taken the lead in showing that human rights violations don’t just happen in far away countries--they happen in the USA as well. Hunger, homelessness, extreme poverty, inadequate healthcare, violence against women and racial discrimination are all human rights issues that have been the basis for costly lawsuits against cities, states and the federal government . The NYC Human Rights Initiative presents a proactive method of identifying policies that may violate New Yorkers’ human rights by pushing women and minorities deeper into poverty. The local law we seek to pass will provide specific guidelines and tools that incorporate human rights principles, create preventive measures, enable more effective public participation and, ultimately, improve the quality of life for all New Yorkers.
For information on the NYC Human Rights Initiative, contact The New York City Human Rights Initiative, P.O. Box 1260, Cooper Station, New York , NY 10276-1260 or e-mail: cedawcerdnyc@yahoo.com
