Home > Why Human Rights in the U.S.? >
Why Human Rights in the U.S.?

While the United States was a major founder of the international human rights system in 1948, and though we have consistently challenged other countries to abide by systems of accountability, U.S. leadership continues to reject applying human rights domestically. For example, the United States has prioritized civil rights over the human right to an adequate standard of living (including the rights to health care, housing and education) and therefore has never adopted the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The U.S. is also the only industrialized nation never to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Furthermore, the United States and Somalia are the only countries not to adopt the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and Somalia does not have a working government.

In the United States, there is a growing culture of indifference to human rights. Dominant ideas within public policy assume that self-reliance and a “pick-yourself-up-from-the-bootstraps” attitude will resolve issues of poverty in America. Human Rights provide a progressive alternative to this way of thinking by articulating the obligations of local, state and federal government to protect the human rights of all. Human Rights speaks to economic, social, cultural and religious rights as fundamental to being human. No matter who you are, rich or poor, undocumented or a citizen, European-American or a person of color, man, woman or child, human rights are available to all of us. The human rights framework gives us a minimum standard from which to base our quality of life so that laws cannot be put forward to violate this standard.

In a post-9/11 era where national security has taken priority over human security, and within a national system of public policy that is failing communities, WILD recognizes the need for a lasting and comprehensive human rights framework to set goals for social change. Human Rights demands accountability of both public and private and for the direct and indirect actions of government. Whether we are talking about police actions, border security, the rights of children, or corporate discrimination in terms of pay equity and family leave, government is still accountable to all.

Next: How Do People Engage in Human Rights to Further a Cause?