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Six years ago,
WILD was successful in passing the Convention
on the
Elimination
of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW) in San Francisco – the
first time CEDAW was passed in the United
States at any level. Because
of this legislation, concrete changes in
policy – such
as improving services for young women in the
juvenile justice system – were
implemented. Throughout the last few years, we’ve
helped cities like Seattle, Los Angeles,
and New York with similar campaigns to pass
CEDAW.
This year, we will build on our successes and
our work to create a culture of human rights
in the Bay Area, California and nationally. We
are launching a three-year Human Rights Campaign to pass the United
Nations Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights (ICESCR) and the United
Nations Convention on the International Covenant
of Civil
and Political Rights (ICCPR) at the local level. This campaign will change
the way that our local government makes decisions.
Based in the work of local community partners
and organizations, we have identified the following
as primary concerns: (a) the right to
an adequate standard of living (ICESCR) and (b) the
right to liberty and security of person (ICCPR). Translating
these rights into policy decisions means really
addressing the local concerns of homelessness,
livable wage and lack of health care, and enforcing
policies that impact police conduct,
treatment of prisoners and use of the death penalty.
As with our work with CEDAW, we will focus on
the implementation of this legislation once it
is passed. The implementation will require the
City to engage in a process that will ultimately
affect policies like:
- access to universal
health care,
- minimum standards
for employment inclusive of day laborers,
- expansion
of affordable housing,
- prosecution
not requesting the death penalty,
- minimum standards for
prisoners,
- human rights training for
the police, and
- protection from national
legislation like the
Patriot Act, which violates
international
human rights standards.
We will push for legislation
with teeth, that will actually impact our daily
lives.
Between June 2004 and May 2005, the objectives
of the Human Rights Campaign are
to:
- Hold a Public
Hearing to increase awareness among
policy makers and
politicians on how human
rights are relevant to the
lives of people in San Francisco.
The Public Hearing will be
held after the local elections in November.
Key local,
state and national
leaders will testify to the
importance
of the ICESCR/ICCPR legislation.
- Advocate
for the passage of an ICESCR/ICCPR ordinance
in San
Francisco in Spring 2005. The
implementation will then
fall into the 2005-6 City budget
cycle. The ordinance will require
the establishment of a monitoring
body
to keep policy
decisions in line with
the legislation.
Email
Tamara at tamara@wildforhumanrights.org to get involved!
