Please forward to anyone who supports
grass-roots action for human rights
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 --- 6PM - 8PM
Location: Sabathani Community Center, 310 East 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN
Sponsored by the Ad-Hoc Human Rights Treaties Organizing Committee
Hosted & Facilitated by the Poor Peoples' Economic Human Rights Campaign
PPEHRC members will attend an Emergency Meeting of the Community Raid Response Team and supporters:
5PM Wednesday, May 14,2008 at Waite House 2550 - 13th Avenue South
to address the raids that happened on May 12th in Iowa and discuss a response.
Our Mission:"...to promote the recognition and enforcement of human rights treaties..."
Real human rights tools to assist our community struggles for justice. Join us.
To see what we have been up to in the past two meetings, see the attachment, Blueprint #1.
At our meeting on May 14, we will have a educational presentation (a teach-in template) on three important human rights documents:
(1) the International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination;
(2) the International Convention on Social, Cultural, and Economic Rights; and
(3) the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Following this presentation, we will strategize on outreach, next steps, etc!
Directions to the meeting:
Click on the following link for directions to the Sabathani Community Center (310 East 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN) -- MAP
The Ad-Hoc Human Rights Treaties Organizing Committee is a voluntary association of community and human rights activists committed to the goal of promoting the recognition and enforcement of human rights treaties. Participants in this effort to date have included members of the following organizations: the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, the Maria Iñamagua Campaign for Justice, the Minnesota-New Orleans Solidarity Committee, the St. Stephens Human Rights Program, African Community Services, Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign, St. Paul Branch of the NAACP, International Indian Treaty Council, Communities United Against Police Brutality, and the Minnesota Council on Black Minnesotans.
Background: The US has
specific obligations under the racial justice treaty it has ratified
in 1996, the International Convention for the Elimination of All forms
of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). The United Nations committee
whose job it is to monitor US compliance with that treaty (the Committee
for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination or CERD) reviewed
US performance in February 2008 and found it lacking in many respects.
In its report on US compliance (“Concluding Observation” issued
March 7, 2008), the CERD Committee identified many parts of the treaty
where US compliance needed to be “improved”.
For five specific issues, the
CERD Committee has requested the US to file a report on the effective
measures it has taken to implement the CERD recommendations (most of
which are already US obligations under the treaty) within a year, i.e.,
by March 7, 2009.
Among the five items marked
for a progress report from the US government due to the CERD Committee
on March 7, 2009 is the treaty requirement (Article 7) that the US provide
training programs, courses and public education to make government officials,
the judiciary, federal and state law enforcement officials, teachers,
social workers and the public in general aware of the responsibilities
the US has under the treaty, as well as the monitoring mechanisms and
procedures provided by the racial justice treaty, the ICERD.
Goal of Blueprint #1: to hold the US and relevant Minnesota officials publicly accountable to implement the CERD Committee’s March 7, 208 recommendations and to raise public awareness of the ICERD treaty’s usefulness and the usefulness of human rights treaties in general.
Action Step 1: April 16 - May 14, 2008 — prepare community-directed educational presentation (popular education) focusing on three human rights treaties: 1) the International Convention for the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD); 2) the International Convention on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Central contact persons for each of those treaties have been identified: 1) Tovah Flygare for the ICERD; 2) Cheri Honkala for the ICESCR; and 3) Bill Means and Amalia Anderson for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Dress rehearsal of the presentation will be given at the next meeting of our Organizing Committee: Wednesday May 14, 2008; 6PM at Sabathani Community Center, 310 E. 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN. All committed to the cause are welcome.
Action Step 2: May 15 to
July 4, 2008 — sponsor community-directed educational presentations
(popular education teach-ins) to/with community members at various locations
throughout the Twin Cities, developing the community base for this campaign.
Action Step 3: Mid-July
— convene a multi-community sponsored, community-located
meeting with representatives of the officials who are supposed to be
aware of US and their own obligations under the ICERD: elected officials
at the federal, state, municipal, and county level, members of the judiciary,
federal and state law enforcement officials, teachers, social workers.
Notify them of the basic ICERD obligations, the CERD request for a report
within one-year regarding the five specifically identified subjects,
emphasizing the education that they should all be receiving about their
obligations under the ICERD, etc. Informing them that the US report
is due March 7, 2009 and their role in contributing to that report.
Informing them that we will be filing a Shadow Report to the CERD Committee
regarding US (and Minnesota’s) progress in implementing the
federal and state law enforcement officials, teachers, social workers
.
Action Step 4: July - November
2008 — Monitor Minnesota’s activity implementing the CERD Committee’s
March 7, 2008 recommendations.
Action Step 5: December
10, 2008 (International Human Right Day) or Martin Luther King Birthday
(January 15, 2009) — issue preliminary Shadow Report in anticipation
of the US March 7, 2009 report to the CERD Committee on the five identified
issues, reviewing and assessing adequacy of steps taken in Minnesota
to implement the five subjects (emphasizing the training requirement)
to date.
Action Step 6: Follow-up to be determined.
Additional Blueprints for Action will be developed in the course of on-going strategy meetings, which we aim to hold approximately every two weeks starting May 14, 2008. Following the May 14, 2008 meeting at Sabathani Community Center, we will meet June 4, 2008 at the American Indian OIC, 1848 East Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55404.
The Ad-Hoc Human Rights
Treaties Organizing Committee is a voluntary association of community
and human rights activists committed to the goal of promoting the recognition
and enforcement of human rights treaties. Participants in this
effort to date have included members of the following organizations:
the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, the Maria Iñamagua
Campaign for Justice, the Minnesota-New Orleans Solidarity Committee,
the St. Stephens Human Rights Program, African Community Services, Poor
Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign, St. Paul Branch of the NAACP,
International Indian Treaty Council, Communities United Against Police
Brutality, and the Minnesota Council on Black Minnesotans.
For further information, contact: Peter W. Brown, Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and the Minnesota Tenants Union — (612) 824-6533; peterb3121@hotmail.com or Amalia Anderson, Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and the International Indian Treaty Council — 612-280-4730; amalia1609@mac.com.