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San Francisco Human Rights Ordinance Campaign

History

In April 1998, the city of San Francisco made history by passing an ordinance to adopt the international human rights treaty - Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). A task force made up of community leaders and city officials monitored the implementation of the CEDAW Ordinance. The legislation requires the city departments to go through a gender analysis on the allocation of funds, service delivery and employment. Departments such as adult and juvenile probation, public works, rent board, and environment, have brought about concrete policy changes in how they employ and serve women in San Francisco. WILD for Human Rights took the lead in advocating for the CEDAW Ordinance and its implementation along with its partners Amnesty International, The Women’s Foundation of California and the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women. Throughout the last few years, WILD for Human Rights has helped cities like Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Berkeley and Santa Cruz with similar campaigns to pass CEDAW and other human rights treaties. In August 2004, the California State Senate passed CEDAW.

The San Francisco Human Rights Awareness Campaign

Building on our success, our work for the next few years will focus on broadening the culture of human rights in the San Francisco Bay Area through education and advocacy. As part of this critical work we will advocate for the passing of a proactive human rights ordinance that aims to protect the human rights of all who live in San Francisco. Our goal is to utilize the two main human rights treaties, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The importance of combining both treaties to be passed as one legislation helps city and communities not to position one set of rights against each other, move beyond single issues, and not seek “band-aid approaches” in reaction to needs and city policies. Based in the work of local 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). The advancement of a human rights ordinance at the local level would set precedent in the United States. While the U.S. government passed the ICCPR, it has yet to pass the ICESCR.

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 proactive process that will ultimately affect policies to impact the following:

• Access to universal health care coverage
• Standards for employment inclusive of day laborers
• Expansion of affordable housing
• Minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners
• Protection from national legislation like the Patriot Act, which violates international human rights standards and in part, violates the US Constitution