Home > Publications > Criminalized >
In order to develop more effective public policy,
we call on the U.S. government to develop better
tools for understanding abuses and discrimination
related to intersectionality of identities
and the ways that systems of institutional discrimination
work together to put particular communities
at
risk. In order to ensure the full spectrum
of rights, the government, in collaboration with
non-governmental
organizations and where appropriate, UN bodies,
should commit to the following:
- Human Rights Standards: International Human
Rights standards must be applied in the development
and implementation of both foreign and domestic
policy. This includes ratifying, adopting
and fully implementing all pending UN Treaties
(without reservations),
as well as reviewing and revising previously
established overbroad reservations.
- Educational Funding: The funding of public
education should not be based on property
taxes. Basing it
on property taxes leaves poor neighborhoods
with no option but poor and inadequate schooling
facilities.
Re-distribute the funding of schools so that
schools in poor urban areas have adequate
facilities. This
must be coupled with an increase in the construction
of public schools and stopping the creation
of youth-based police and military academies
- Privatization of Prisons
and Detention Centers: Stop the privatization of the criminal
justice
system which provides U.S. corporations with
an incentive to participate in the construction
and
expansion of the prison industrial complex.
This also includes stopping the creation
of police
and military academies for youth
- Data, documentation,
reporting: Where
data is not already disaggregated using and
intersectional
analysis, it should be collected and made
accessible, paying particular attention to
data that captures
the experiences of people who are subjected
to discrimination or violence as a result
of their
multiple identities.
- Decision-Making: Government must ensure
access to and participation of marginalized
communities
in decision-making processes. Looking particularly
at funding youth empowerment programs and
ensure that youth leadership will be held
at the forefront
decision-making and remedies.
Home: Table of Contents
top
