UNC Human Rights

Introduction

2008-05-05T11:13:00.000-07:00

Judith Blau, Professor
jrblau@email.unc.edu

Background, Fall 2007

As a background, students in my Fall courses at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill examined different aspects of the international human rights framework and its relevance. Students in Sociology 131 focused on labor law and the effects of globalization on human populations, whereas those in Sociology 273 focused on human rights treaties, including ones dealing with climate change and the environment. Students in both classes learned that the US has chosen not to participate in this international framework (opting to use a legal escape clause). They also learned that the US Constitution is the oldest in the world, and it is one of a very few that has not been recently revised to include fundamental human rights (See Constitution Finder.). They decided to hold a mock Constitutional Convention to “revise” the US Constitution. Mayor Foy of Chapel Hill and Mayor Chilton of Carrboro both spoke at the Convention and both agreed that they would back the idea of their own city becoming a Human Rights City. (The Constitutional Convention has been archived in a student blog by Cynthia Trinh)

Spring 2008

The Human Rights City Movement is relatively new in the US, but nowhere has it been spearheaded by students, and this was the challenge facing the students in Sociology 290 (“Human Rights Cities”) during Spring 2008. They are:

Lizzy Adkisson, Patricia Alessi, Sean Anderson, Meredith Austin, Tessa Bialek, Alicia Brown, Hameka Canady, Yates Creech, Beau Delapouyade, Reine Duffy, Stacey Garner, John Gray, Shilpa Hegde, Shaconda Johnson, Kaila Ramsey, Chelsea Sessoms, Amy Shaffer, Clark Woodard, and Bernard Worthy.

A Citizens’ Steering Committee was also formed. Although it continues to grow, early members include Sally Massengale and Iris Shwintzer (co-chairs), John Cooper, Marie Duke, Lucy Lewis, Pluto Richards, Carlo Robustelli, Arturo Romano, Cullen Zimmerman

A Few Major Lessons We Learned

Engaging the public in discussions about human rights is a big challenge, and we were unable to accomplish that during this term. The typical American city is segregated by race and class. Property rights and economic privilege are big obstacles. For example, the poor do not have housing rights and often cannot afford medical care. They live in enclaves, hidden from those with wealth and other resources.

Human rights practitioners (e.g., women’s advocates) and academics in applied fields (e.g., planning) both use human rights concepts but in narrow terms. Once a human rights framework is adopted, it will be much easier to bridge connections involving practitioners and academics. Furthermore, human rights advocates and academics do not need to be defensive about making a case – to give an example -- for the rights of the child. There is a human rights treaty on the Rights of the Child.

Students presenting their work to the Steering Committee was helpful for both the students and the members of the S.C.

What We Did This Term and Beyond

The students’ blog entries (below) are rich and informative (although not linearly organized) They start with brief accounts of gaps in data and information, and then summarize their projects and the many (though not all) of the meetings and public hearings they attended. This blog has been maintained by Meredith Austin.

Please also see the blog maintained by Bernard Worthy. On it are the major human rights treaties.

Students in the Fall will be building on the pioneering work carried out by students in 131, 273 and 290. This is not an academic exercise; their aim is to transform the logic of the way cities function using Chapel Hill and Carrboro as models. What is the new logic they envision? It can be summed up briefly: egalitarian, nondiscriminatory, inclusive, pluralistic, deeply democratic, equitable, where cultural and social differences are celebrated, and where each person is treated with dignity.

Data That Are Needed to Advance Human Rights in Chapel Hill and Carrboro

2008-04-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

Information/Communication:

According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, only 29 percent of school-age children in households with annual incomes of less that $15,000 use a home computer to complete school assignments, compared to the 77 percent of children in households with incomes of $75,000 or more. Information as a human right is something that needs to be emphasized.

Cultural Pluralism:

Everyone has the right to celebrate their culture, and this right should be respected and protected by all members of the community. But, how can the community respect and protect underrepresented cultures if they do not know they are there? In order to promote and protect cultural pluralism in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, it is necessary to know what cultures actually are represented. What people live in the area and what types of things are important to them? It would be beneficial if the town provided information about the demographics of the population and cultural facts that might be interesting.

Education:

My topic for the semester was discrimination in the educational systems of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. It is important that the community learns about the educational gap in the school systems. By learning this information, governmental officials, school officials, and the community as a whole will be able to create a plan to ensure that every student achieves at the same level.

Only 44 percent of black students passed both reading and math end-of-grade tests at the elementary level, which is far below the district's 93 percent average for white students. (Chapel Hill/Carrboro end of the year report card).

Children:

The website for the town of Chapel Hill/Carrboro needs to include a section about recreation.

Housing:

How many homeless people are from Chapel Hill or just come here for the homeless shelter? How many people have been homeless for a year or long? How many people have been chronically homeless? What is the relationship between substance abuse and homelessness? How can the homeless shelter accommodate all the homeless people in Chapel Hill? It only can accommodate 30 people (only 30 beds). What can the local government do? How can the citizens participate in this endeavor?

Healthcare:

It is quite clear that the citizens of Chapel Hill and Carrboro need to be more informed about healthcare in order to empower themselves and advance the human rights of everyone. The healthcare problem with Chapel Hill and Carrboro is that the problem seems to be non-existent - we need more awareness! Residents need to understand that there are a significant number of low-income and unemployed residents that lack adequate healthcare.

Women:

Some important and necessary pieces of information to uncover would be: what is the exact average wage gap of Chapel Hill/Carrboro? What percentage of businesses provide child care? Maternity leave with more job security? Paternity leave?

Refugees:

It would be very beneficial to the community to learn about the holidays and festivals celebrated by the local refugee community, in particular those of the prevalent Burmese refugee population. It would be neat for these celebrations to take place in the public schools where children of the local Burmese refugee community are enrolled. Additionally, a public celebration of a holiday, for example the Burmese Water Festival, once a year in Chapel Hill or Carrboro would not only engage many members of the community, but would raise awareness about the diversity of our community and the existence of the Burmese refugee population.

Rogers/Eubanks Project:

I would like to know the legality of the Rogers/Eubanks dump project. They claimed that they would shut it down ten years after opening it, but have not kept their word. Are there any laws prohibiting their current actions? What percentage of the Carrboro population is affected negatively and positively by the dump and what is the racial spread on those figures?

Police:

Something that we need to know is out of all the youth that will enroll in the Police Venturing Crew program, how many will/ might have possible conflicts with their work schedules. Some kids especially from low socioeconomic backgrounds might miss out on this opportunity, how can we ensure that they benefit from this program as well. The program focuses on 14-21 years old, and will allow a relationship between the resource officers and the youth in the community.

~Compiled by Kaila Ramsey

Environmental Rights

2008-04-27T17:20:00.000-07:00

By: Yates Creech

The most depressing and daunting discovery I have made thus far, is that there is no apparent department for the environment on the City of Chapel Hill’s website. I have thoroughly explored the site and the closest I could get to the environment was a link to Greenways and parks in Chapel Hill. There is also, an entire page devoted to development with no mention of its impact on the environment.

The Chapel Hill Town Council has created a new advisory board that is centered on developing a sustainability plan for the Town, and carrying out education and outreach activities. The Town is currently engaged in a number of community-wide projects related to sustainability, including implementation of its Community Carbon Reduction (CRed) pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 60 percent by the year 2050. The Town has adopted milestones for per capita reduction of carbon emissions from municipal operations. The Town is also a partner in the Orange County Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Study, which plans to inventory county-wide greenhouse gas emissions.

Women's Rights

2008-04-26T15:01:00.001-07:00

By: Kaila Ramsey

For this past Spring semester I have been learning more about international concepts of human rights and how they can be applied locally to the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, especially in considering women's rights. The international treaties make very clear the needs for providing child care, for maternity and paternity leave, for more job security for women, and specifically addressing the issue of the gendered wage gap that exists even here in our university towns. As of right now in Chapel Hill/Carrboro there is no way to require businesses to provide health care, a fair wage, or job security to their employees.

One important thing I did this semester was to meet with administrators and workers at the Orange County Women's Center and the Carolina Women's Center (addressing the needs of women on UNC's campus). As I did more research both on the nation and on this area, I realized the most problematic issue was the lack of facts and information or research on this topic of women's rights. Both centers do not have any kind of statistics available to them to cite about the wage gap in these counties, or the percentages of businesses that offer child care support. Obtaining and publicizing this information would be the first big necessary step to conquering the gender inequity here in our backyard.

Lastly, I compiled lists of potential partnerships that could occur between active student organizations in the community, and researched the need to teach and promote fiscal responsibility among citizens of Chapel Hill/Carrboro.

Rights to Children

2008-04-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

By: Shaconda Johnson

In the Convention of the Rights of the Child, Article 28 states, "States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity." This semester I was focused on the rights of childern. For most of the semester Hameka and myself worked to research discrimination in school system. One of the ways we dicussed and raised awareness about this topic was through a focus group. In this focus group, we discussed discriminatory experiences/issues that former current students have dealt with in their educational careers.

Right to Education

2008-04-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

By: Hameka Canady

This semester, I focused on discrimination in the school systems of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. According to article one of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, every child has the right to education and equal treatment in school. For the past couple of months, I have worked closely with Professor Patricia Parker and her students from her program Still Lifting, Still Climbing. During this time, I became educated about various discriminatory scenarios in the students’ schools in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. For this reason, I conducted a focus group with the students in Sociology 290 to gain more information about the experiences with discrimination in their personal school systems. Largely, every student in the class was either affected or was aware of inequality of students. In the future, it is imperative that the public become informed about this problem in order to change as well as ensure that every student in Chapel Hill/Carrboro receives an equal education.

Housing Rights

2008-04-26T07:32:00.000-07:00

By: Beau Delapouyade, Lizzy Adkisson, and Clark Woodard

Over the course of the year, Beau, Lizzy, and myself have worked on both networking with in the community by volunteering and have become active within homeless organizations. In addition, we have been collecting information on resources for two separate pamphlet. Beau has been focusing more heavily on the networking aspect of our project. She has volunteered under Laurie Tucker, the Residential Services Director at Interfaith Council Community House in Chapel Hill. Interfaith Community Council provides a facility which sleeps 30 men, located on the corner of Rosemary St. and Columbia Ave. Beau has also become involved with Project Homeless Connect (PHC). PHC is a one day event in which homeless can access to dental, housing, daycare, and social services. Cities across the globe have adopted the premise of PHC. The second annual event is scheduled for September 25, 2008. If anyone is interested in attending the next meeting which will be held on May 8, contact Beau (beau14@email.unc.edu).

On the other side of the project, we have worked on collecting and compiling resources for the homeless. The final project should be completed with in the week. Then, we plan on distributing it to both the Interfaith Council Community House as well as at the May 8^th Project Homeless Connect meeting. The second pamphlet will consist of tips for community involvement and awareness. We have also discussed creating a facebook event in hopes of encouraging student donations of can food and clothing to the IFC shelter.

As far as next year goes, it is important that students continue to build strong ties with community members who are actively working to solve the homeless problem in the Chapel Hill and Carrboro community. As the day nears, Project Homeless Connect will inevitably need more and more help. Continued involvement will spark future projects and networking will be key in the success of demonstrating the necessity of housing rights within a human rights framework.

The Right to Food

2008-04-26T07:29:00.000-07:00

By: Amy Shaffer

Everyone has a right to food. Some international laws recognize this, but the U.S. has not institutionalized this right into law.

After-school programs, state/federal agencies, churches, and other local organizations operate in Chapel Hill/Carrboro to ensure that residents of the community do not suffer from food insecurity. However, I have discovered that these resources use wording that connotes food as a charity, not a basic right. This mentality is not only demeaning, but only further permeates discrimination between the rich and the poor.

I met with Charles Williams, administrative assistant at the IFC Carrboro Food Pantry, who addressed the interconnectivity of human rights issues in the community. He said that issues like poverty, food insecurity and homelessness are community issues and if the community intermingles (rich and poor) as a united force, then more resources can be utilized to aid these problems. He added that there are challenges because Chapel Hill/Carrboro is a very transient community.

Additionally, he noted a conspiracy rooted at the mental health program of N.C. He claimed that John Umstead has literally dumped patients at their homeless shelters due to lack of funds, even though the hospital is aware these people need medication and financial assistance.

There are institutional barriers to change, but the community is working towards change, said Williams. More awareness is needed and more resources need to be pumped into already-existing programs.

Information and Human Rights

2008-04-26T07:21:00.000-07:00

By: Bernard Worthy

Information as a human right is something I have never considered until this semester, but yet it has been staring me in the face my entire life. Coming from an impoverished area of an Atlanta suburb I can totally relate to this issue, from the privileged and unprivileged perspective. Growing up, my parents always went the extra mile to ensure that I had access to whatever necessary when it came to my academics, because they were not afforded the same opportunities. I never really thought about it until high school when I realized that some of my best friends did not even have access to a working computer at home.

How can we expect the achievement gap to be repressed when there are so many basic holes like limited access to information? We want our young minorities to vote, but what if they canʼt log on to cnn.com every day to educate themselves on the issues and candidates? What about the out of work young refugee working class man that canʼt submit his resume to monster.com or he canʼt check it at the library frequently enough because it closes? On another note, we all want to help our communities, but what if the information about our Human Rights Cities initiative doesnʼt reach the people who want to help the most? It is their right to know about our work. Information as a human right is definitely a complicated and multi-faceted issue, but equal access to information is something that should be easy.

Non-Discriminationatory Towns

2008-04-26T07:20:00.000-07:00

By: Stacey Garner

This semester I have looked at what Chapel Hill and Carrboro are doing to create non-discriminatory towns.

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: All are equal before the law, are entitled to live without any discrimination and are entitled to equal protection of the law.

Chapel Hill/ Carrboro does its part:

has an office/committee for inclusionary zoning
Justice in Action -“To adequately and effectively reflect the Town of Chapel Hill’s integrity and commitment to preserving racial, economic, and social justice within the community” (town on Chapel Hill).
equal employment opportunity/Affirmative Action employer
discrimination not allowed while seeking to rent or buy housing in Orange County

-creating more affordable housing units (Dobbins Hill)

equal opportunity for early education

Chapel Hill and Carborro have room for improvement

The inclusionary office and Justice in Action office need to be more than a placement holder. Currently, the Justice in Action committee is working on ways to increase membership and unable to focus on preserving justice w/in the community.
Jobs and housing offered to different racial/ethnic groups continue to segregate. Though we should be encouraged by the strides made, segregation is not enough!
There are few organizations that bring different racial/ethnic grps. together
There remains to be a shortage of affordable housing units and jobs opportunities within the city limits.
Lack of community organization that teach against discrimination for older population

Rights of Refugees

2008-04-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

By: Tessa Bialek

This semester, my project has been to focus on the Rights of Refugees as they pertain to the Chapel Hill and Carrboro refugee population.

International human rights framework:

1951 United Nations Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, includes:
- Commitment to family reunification
- Freedom from discrimination
- The right to wage-earning employment
- The right to housing
- The right to education.

Resources:

Weekly interactions in a community ESL class
Websites of local organizations
Local newspaper articles
Report: “People from Burma Living in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, An Action Oriented Community Diagnosis: Findings and Next Steps of Action” published in May 2007 <http://www.hsl.unc.edu/PHpapers/Orange_2007.pdf >

Chapel Hill and Carrboro offer many important services to the local refugee community, including:

Free ESL services
Health care
Job placement assistance
Resettlement assistance.

However, there are also many possibilities for improvement:

The “People from Burma” study points to:
- The inability of many to attend ESL classes due to schedule conflicts with work
- Insufficient interpreter services
- Lack of community organization
- Lack of adequate health care knowledge as major concerns facing the local refugee community
Also, since I began my research, there have been at least two cases of robberies targeting the local Burmese communities.
- Leads to Fear
- Doesn’t make the refugee community feel safe or welcome
Celebrating the culture of the refugee community:
- I could not find any information about celebrations of Burmese holidays or culture, even though I was actively seeking them out.
- The “People of Burma…” report makes similar suggestions, noting the benefits of consolidating pertinent information on a website and trying to involve more people in the community (35). While their intention seems to be to make these resources available for the Burmese refugee community, a welcome side effect would be their availability to all Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents.

Economic Refugees:

Based on a speaker from the NC Justice Center at the April 6^th Conference called 'Community Impacts of Local Responses to Undocumented Immigration'
- Undocumented immigrants as 'economic refugees'
  - No legal definition for this exists - thus, undocumented migrants have no legal recognition or protection.
  - Everyone is worse off when people don't have equal rights, for example low income citizens in the same workplace as undocumented workers.
  - Many workplace abuses happen, ignored because the majority of workers are undocumented and thus, in our system, don't have the rights that they should have as human beings.
  - UN Declaration of Human Rights as relevant to the discussion of immigration:
  - Many of the problems facing the local undocumented immigrant community, such as community inclusion, availability of ESL and other services, and prevalence of crimes committed against them, parallel the problems facing the local refugee community. Thus, it is valuable to consider these two populations as linked.

Health Care

2008-04-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

Patricia Alessi

Everyone has the right to health. Yet, as I have discovered, this statement is not always true. During this semester, after I attended a healthcare talk held at the Carrboro City Hall, I worked on trying to understand the current healthcare system situation that exists in our country. My findings revealed that we have much work to do in achieving universal healthcare in the United States. While our federal government is severely stalling on this situation—mainly because privatized healthcare is a multi-billion dollar industry that is putting the pressure on the government to stay in business—several states have started to take up the “right to healthcare” fight. Indeed, Massachusetts has set up a healthcare system in which those who do not have healthcare will be provided it by the state. Moreover, as seen by Canada and England, it is possible for a country to offer its citizens universal healthcare. Nevertheless, the United States is still the only industrialized country that does not guarantee this right to health.

North Carolina is finally joining the fight for healthcare for its residents with a bill that they are trying to amend to the North Carolina Constitution. This bill would state that healthcare is a human right. Yet, while this is a good start, more needs to be done. We need to not only state that healthcare is a human right, but also actually provide it. Therefore, through several suggestions in my final written report, I believe that North Carolina can begin to offer this right to its residents. Moreover, North Carolina needs to join other states that believe in healthcare as a right to start to demand it from our government. In the worst-case scenario, universal healthcare will have to happen state-by-state. Yet, my optimistic side believes that somehow we will be able to put enough pressure on the federal government for it finally to take social responsibility for all of its residents.

Healthcare and North Carolina

2008-04-17T18:30:00.001-07:00

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have some great news about the healthcare situation in North Carolina that I recently discovered this week! It's amazing! The current healthcare statewide crisis if finally starting to brighten up! The following is a description of what is happening! Woo-hoo North Carolina!

The state of North Carolina has slowly been joining this political progress in healthcare reform. During the 2007 session, on March 20, 2007, the General Assembly of North Carolina passed the health reform bill H.B. 901, a.k.a. “Health Care for All.” This bill is an act that will “amend the North Carolina constitution to recognize the right to health care” (Universal Health Care Legislation, 3). Below is a description of the bill that was offered at this session.

Short Title: Health Care for All. (Public)
Sponsors: Representative Insko.
Referred to:
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO AMEND THE NORTH CAROLINA CONSTITUTION TO
RECOGNIZE THE RIGHT TO HEALTH CARE.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. Article I of the North Carolina Constitution is amended by adding a new section to read:
“Sec. 38. Health care.
Health care is an essential safeguard of human life and dignity, and there is an obligation for the State to ensure that every resident is able to realize this fundamental right. Not later than July 1, 2009, the General Assembly shall provide by law a plan to ensure that by July 1, 2013, every resident of North Carolina has access to appropriate health care on a regular basis.”
SECTION 2. The amendment set out in Section 1 of this act shall be
submitted to the qualified voters of the State at the general election in November 2008, which election shall be conducted under the laws then governing elections in the State. Ballots, voting systems, or both may be used in accordance with Chapter 163 of the General Statutes. The question to be used in the voting systems and ballots shall be:
“[ ] FOR [ ] AGAINST
Constitutional amendment providing that health care is a fundamental right.”
SECTION 3. If a majority of the votes cast on the question are in favor of the amendment set out in Section 1 of this act, the State Board of Elections shall certify the amendment to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State shall enroll the amendment so certified among the permanent records of that office.
SECTION 4. This act is effective when it becomes law. (Universal Health Care Legislation).

The following is the history of this bill thus far in the State House:

03/19/2007:
[H]
Filed

03/20/2007:
[H]
Passed 1st Reading

03/20/2007:
[H]
Ref To Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
(“North Carolina General Assembly--House Bill 901 Information/History, 1).

With this bill, we are on our way to improve the healthcare coverage situation for all residents in North Carolina! Let's hope that the state legislature keeps up this fantastic work!!!!

More about our meeting with the fabulous Shula Koenig!

2008-03-30T18:33:00.000-07:00

If you have seen the short video clip, then you will definitely understand that we had a fabulous meeting with Shula Koenig this past Monday. As we all found out, she is an amazing woman! She is the founding president of the People's Movement for Human Rights Learning. In addition, Koenig has worked to have the UN declare this decade a "Decade for Human Rights Learning" as well as has developed an international public policy that is being put into place to encourage this learning throughout the world's people. Also, as we already know, Koenig is demonstrating this vision of worldwide human rights by helping to initiate and facilitate the UN "Human Rights Cities" program with which we are involved! Through this program, she is trying to provoke human rights learning at the local level. In 2003, Koenig was a recipient of the United Nations' "Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Human Rights."

At our meeting, she had so many important points to make to us--we just sat there in awe soaking it up! One of the most poignant points that she made to me, however, was this idea of spreading human rights WITHOUT the use of imperialism. I mean, many of us do not think about imperialism when we are trying to spread human rights and teach others about them. Yet, Shula pointed out that this is a very tricky situation--one in which that we can become easily trapped. Indeed, Shula stated that she does not go to the different countries herself. Rather, she has people from that country come to her so that she can teach them about human rights. It is then up to these country delegates to go back to their country to teach their fellow citizens about human rights. By approaching human rights this way, fellow citizens are helping each other rather than having a human rights expert swoop in to teach and dictate the idea of human rights. This way, human rights come from within!

If you want to learn more about this amazing and powerful woman, you can check out the People's Movement for Human Rights Learning website: http://www.pdhre.org/index.html.

Koenig regularly writes articles as the group's president. Also, the website offers some great information and tools--from learning about human rights methodology and materials, to browsing summaries of Human Rights conventions, information about Human Rights Cities (!!!), to reading some great articles (in both English and Spanish!) about human rights in the Dialogue and Discourse section of the website and more! There is even a Get Involved! link on the website if you would like to join our fight for worldwide human rights! Without a doubt, our talk on Monday only helped to better inform us as well as to motivate us. As Shula Koenig so often pointed out, WE CAN DO THIS!!!!

Shula Koenig

2008-03-24T19:10:00.001-07:00

Our class had the distinct honor to hear Shula Koenig speak on her work creating human rights cities and how we can continue our effort in making Chapel Hill and Carborro such cities. Click here to hear an excerpt from her talk!

Water and our Environment

2008-03-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

Sean R. Anderson

Are they Human Rights or privileges? Why is it so important to distinguish the difference? This answer is clear through a historical perspective. All levels of government in our country have historically and even today maintain a deplorable record of taking privileges, on either an individual basis or specifically targeted groups, both home and abroad. Are these undisputable infringements coming from the land of the free? The answers to all of these questions are entirely too vivid in two very different interpretations of only two words in our country’s Declaration of Independence as, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The first interpretation of Jefferson and our forefathers was that to be qualified for the category of “all men” the three prerequisites of being male, rich and white had to be fulfilled. This discrepancy is not anti-American, but hyper-American and the key to universal human rights. The literal sense of this beautiful work is our first Declaration of Human Rights with the accurate definition of “all men” as we know it to be ALL HUMANS!!!

The multiple crises surrounding our precious natural resource of water is nothing new from a global perspective. We have all read about the horrible pollution stemming from China’s over utilization of fertilizer falling in line with the green revolution, transnational corporations poisoning water while raping and pillaging the land while simultaneously exploiting the impoverished on a global scale. The horrors transpiring have exceeded human rights violations have now also qualified as crimes against humanity.

These facts of the United Nation’s Food and Organization (FAO) show several multiple levels of importance of unpolluted fisheries to the world.

17% of the Worlds protein consumption is from fish.
39 out of the top 40 countries that have fish as the principle protein in their diet are in the developing world.
fishing sector is an important source of employment and income for over 120 million people
net exports of fish and fishery products by the developing world are generating more than $36 billion annually.
fishing produces $420 billion annually to the worlds economy.

The FAO shows the economic importance of fishing and the nutritional values, but reveals the crimes against humanity with this single fact:

Due to pollution and over harvesting of fish in the saltwater bodies worldwide have been depleted by 90%!
1. A continuing deterioration in aquatic ecosystems and the impact of conflicting 'non-fishery' uses of shorelines and coastal areas add further pressure. About 80 per cent of marine pollution comes from the land

The United Nations highlights the problem as,

“The agriculture sector faces a complex challenge: producing more food of better quality while using less water per unit of output; providing rural people with resources and opportunities to live a healthy and productive life; applying clean technologies that ensure environmental sustainability; and contributing in a productive way to the local and national economy.”

The issue of the availability of clean water has traditionally been distant in nature or a global dilemma, but this past year has brought it to the forefront at home. Orange County Water and Sewage are currently at stage 2 and will probably move to stage 3. The economic impact is now felt locally through the restriction of water consumption to the counties businesses. Contaminated fish have been discovered from Wilmington to Charlotte, with levels of mercury at over five times of the FDA’s already feeble standards.

Economic Development Meeting

2008-03-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

The town of Chapel Hill sought input on economic development strategies from the community this pass week. After hearing the rules of this presentation I felt more like a kindergartener being taught how to share for the first time. The meeting we attended was held in the center of an upper class, self contained community complete with schools, dinning, entertainment and recreation, medical care, and office space. The individuals at the meeting ranged from 30 something white collar workers to middle aged white collar workers. The input from the community may have been helpful in some aspects but at other points it was geared, by the mediators, toward the mere wording of the sub-goals. A draft of these goals which can be found at http://www.townofchapelhill.org/DocumentView.asp?DID=2022 didn’t follow through with the overall objectives of the development strategies. After listing several general statistics about the town (both positive and negative) which these goals were intended to address the community clearly noticed the lack of categorical statistics. The praised divers, creative, and social conscious make up of our town seemed to get lost as the presentation continued. Granted this was an Economic Development strategies meeting and not a Human Rights strategies meeting but, the main objective states:

Our goal is to build a more sustainable economy for the 21st century by creating a healthy balance among employment, housing and commercial development. In all of our development efforts, the Town of Chapel Hill places importance on the built & natural environment, community character, transit orientation, social equity and quality of life for its citizens.

New Multimedia!

2008-03-05T19:54:00.000-08:00

There is a new link that will be dedicated totally to multimedia resources. Currently, there is a radio broadcast concerning Chapel Hill's problems updating information on their website. Check it out!

2008-03-02T18:00:00.001-08:00

Short versions of student reports follow. Each starts with a sketch of international human rights law and then each student briefly outlines some of the challenges ahead for Chapel Hill and Carrboro. These reports will be updated at the end of the semester.

A word document of all of these reports can be found here

Rights to Development and Community Democracy

2008-03-02T17:58:00.000-08:00

John Gray

What does international law say about economic and environmental sustainability

Principle 27 of the Rio Declaration, proclaims that

"States and people shall cooperate in good faith and in a spirit of partnership in the fulfillment of the principles embodied in this Declaration and in the further development of international law in the field of sustainable development." [emphasis supplied]

Our Community and Council will work together as they stand by the international intention to sustain the quality of life for all people inside, surrounding, and beyond town limits.

The Hague Declaration of 1989 declared that environmental harm threatens "the right to live in dignity in a viable global environment.”

Ensure Responsible Development in San Leandro - City Council Meeting

diverse and mixed-income housing
good-paying, union jobs with benefits
safe, walkable and bikeable streets
access to parks, schools, transit and other important social services
green building and energy efficiency to reduce global warming

c. Chapter 2 of Our Common Future (the report of the Brundtland Commission) begins:

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

The 1986 United Nations General Assembly "Declaration on the Right to Development."

“Recognizing that development is a comprehensive economic, social, cultural and political process, which aims at the constant improvement of the well-being of the entire population and of all individuals on the basis of their active, free and meaningful participation in development and in the fair distribution of benefits arising therefrom..."

"The right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized."

1994 Draft Principles on Human Rights and the Environment. It avers that

"All persons have the right to active, free and meaningful participation in planning and decision- making and processes that may have an impact on the environment and development. This includes a right to a prior assessment of the environmental, developmental and human rights consequences of proposed actions."

The 1996 Human Development Report issued by the UNDP listed what sustainable development is NOT:

Jobless and ruthless -- development where there are losers such as unemployed people (socio-economic dimension)

Voiceless -- development where the people had no say or participation (political dimension)

Rootless -- development which does violence on communities and their cultures (socio-cultural dimension)

Futureless -- development which is at the expense of future generations such as irreversible destruction of natural life support systems (ecological dimension)

Cultural Pluralism

2008-02-29T19:48:00.001-08:00

Chelsea Sessoms

Cultural Pluralism is a very abstract and difficult topic to study. According to international standards, all people have the right to cultural expression. In other words, all groups, including minority groups, have the right to protect, promote, and practice their cultural traditions and beliefs. This is where things get a little tricky. Unlike many other international human rights topics, there is not really a way to legally mandate the right to cultural expression because it is such a broad and abstract idea. In order to promote this ideal of cultural pluralism in Chapel Hill and Carborro, acceptance and respect for other cultures must be instilled in citizens’ consciousness. Because people tend to fear what they do not understand, I think the best way to do this is through cultural education and awareness. Having events such as cultural festivals in the community or culture awareness days in schools could be very beneficial. By exposing people to other cultures, it will promote understanding and the ideal of cultural pluralism. For example, a local group, The Cultural Arts Group, organized a dinner to promote cultural diversity in art around Orange County. This event allowed people to come together and learn about other cultures. In order to truly be successful in promoting cultural awareness, we would need to ensure that the local population is represented. The best way to measure the success or failure of the spread of cultural awareness would be to note the levels of cultural discrimination. In short, cultural pluralism can be achieved in the Chapel Hill and Carborro areas. By spreading education and cultural awareness, the citizens will be more understanding and respectful of other cultures.

Cultural Diversity and Pluralism

2008-02-29T19:45:00.001-08:00

Reine Duffy

UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity was adopted in 2001, which set out to “ensure respect for cultural identities with the participation of all peoples in a democratic framework” and “contribute to the emergence of a favorable climate for the creativity of all, thereby making culture a factor of development.” As the world becomes more and more integrated and connected, cultural pluralism and diversity have become an international concern. The United Nations has acknowledged the right to enjoy and develop cultural life and identity. In our own country, African Americans have historically been segregated and their cultural expressions stifled. Today, we still see a suppression of cultural identity within the American South, where there is a dominant religion and race, and certain accepted views. Nonetheless, progress has to start within our own communities, and Chapel Hill and Carrboro are excellent places to begin.

Chapel Hill and Carrboro are very diverse communities and some efforts have been made to highlight their diversity. For example, the towns hold an annual Community Dinner, with dishes from numerous restaurants in the area, with the purpose of celebrating “our respective cultural bounties and differences and to demonstrate our mutual respect for one another.” Another effort is through the schools, where teachers must take cultural diversity classes. Nonetheless, I think that a good new approach would be to hold a large cultural festival for both Carrboro and Chapel Hill that would raise awareness. Other approaches are through the media.

Discrimination

2008-02-29T19:36:00.001-08:00

Hameka Canady

On December 14, 1960, the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization resolved that “discrimination includes any distinction, exclusion, limitation or preference which, being based on race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic condition or birth, has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing equality of treatment in education and in particular.” Article 1 is specifically relevant for my topic. It emphasized the importance of all children having equal as well as fair educational rights.

I was fortunate to meet with Patricia Parker, an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies here at the university. She is also the founder of a program entitled Still Lifting, Still Climbing: Young Women of Color Leadership through Community Activism, a program designed for high school-aged women in Trinity Court and Pritchard Park, which are both predominately black, low- income communities in the Orange County area. As of June 2007, the program has assisted ten young females from ninth to twelve grades in identifying problems in their community and possible ways to resolve the issues. Throughout the program, the students learned various skills through workshops on personal, organizational, and community leadership. I will continue to work with her in conjunction with Sociology 290.

Healthcare

2008-02-29T19:34:00.000-08:00

Patricia Alessi

According to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to “a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control” (“Universal Declaration of Human Rights”). Moreover, the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man states shat everyone has the right to “preservation of his health through sanitary and social measures relating to food, clothing, housing and medical care, to the extent permitted by public and community resources.”

It was mentioned in class that the Steering Committee was looking for suggestions on how to address human rights. The following are some ideas about how to approach the issue of health and healthcare.

Passing legislation making healthcare universal in both cities. Passing legislation at the local level is a first step in getting universal healthcare coverage passed and supported at the state and federal levels.
Providing healthcare to all in both Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
Providing transportation to those who do not have transportation to healthcare facilities. This may include making public transportation available on Saturdays and Sundays, having more extensive routes, having transportation available longer hours, and more.
Sending letters to state and federal governments demanding that universal healthcare is made available for all—and that it is funded for all.
Reading the “Orange County Community Health Assessment, December 2007”. What I have discussed is only scratching the surface of what the health assessment has uncovered. Reading and discussing with those who have put together the assessment would be a great start in changing Chapel Hill and Carrboro and how the two cities deal with healthcare.
Making residents in both cities aware of the healthcare issue.
Making residents aware of current resources available to those who qualify. Anything from sending flyers to each house to posting it in the local newspapers would be helpful.
Working with university-led student groups that are raising awareness about healthcare issues in Orange County. They may have some fantastic ideas about how to combat this issue!
Widening the limits placed on existing healthcare programs to include those who are currently “falling through the cracks.”
Having people in healthcare programs being able to have continuity of care—with a primary care provider, emergency care to maintenance care, etc.
Making sure that adequate housing exists for all—housing that allows and encourages the health of its inhabitants.
Making sure that all have access to nutritious food.
Checking work environments to make sure that they meet health standards.
Educating children and adults about health, healthcare, healthy habits, etc. to encourage and maintain health in Orange County residents.
Making sure that physical activity is available and allowed in schools as well as healthy options and ideas given to adults.

Housing

2008-02-29T19:33:00.000-08:00

Beau Delapouyade, Lizzy Adkisson, Clark Woodard

The States Parties to Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights: recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The Chapel Hill/Carrboro coalition to end homelessness in 10 years is a nonprofit organization focusing on the problem of chronic homelessness in the community. In order to reduce and ultimately end the problem of chronic homelessness the coalition has addressed the following (although in class we raise questions about the rationale for a ten-year plan)

Year 1

Strategy 1.1:

Establish an assertive street outreach program that targets unsheltered homeless people at natural gathering places throughout Orange County.

Focus on relationship building between merchants, law enforcement and assertive outreach staff with those who are homeless
Focus on simply engaging clients in relationship building before enrolling in services and define success in very small terms
Ensure that there is flexibility in how this is accomplished.
Make sure that this consists of at least two outreach staff
Outreach and engagement activities should not be time limited by funding mechanisms
Utilize formerly homeless/peers to engage in relationship building for those that are hard to reach
Ensure that services are in place at the very moment the client is ready for services

Strategy 1.2:

Establish an outreach system in Northern Orange County that uses the congregate feeding programs as a place to begin identifying those who are chronically homeless in the rural part of the county.

Strategy 1.5:

Identify strategies designed to address the needs for shelter and services for individuals with complex behaviors that result in being banned from kitchen/shelter services.

Strategy 1.7:

40 units will be rehabbed/rented/built to provide permanent supportive housing (including the use of Assertive Community Treatment Teams) for the chronic homeless in Orange County within the first 3-5 years of the plan.

Strategy 1.8:

Ensure that nonprofit developers have the organizational and financial capacity to create new housing units within the community for the chronically homeless.

Strategy 1.9:

Identify a wide variety of sites for housing the chronically homeless throughout the county in the most fair and effective places within the county by

• Requesting the planning departments of all municipalities and Orange County compile a list of all available publicly owned housing/land that can be used for development.

• Encouraging local political leaders to provide publicly owned land/housing to those developing permanent supportive housing

• Identifying all available rental properties that can be bought by supportive housing developers.

Strategy 1.10:

Establish a rigorous evaluation mechanism that measures the cost of individuals who are chronically homeless before and after they are receiving housing and support services.

Year 2-4

Strategy 1.3:

Create an Assertive Community Treatment Team that targets those who are chronically homeless and integrates the team with the above outreach efforts.

Strategy 1.4:

Ensure that both inpatient and outpatient substance abuse treatment is made available to those chronically homeless individuals who desire that service. If inpatient treatment is necessary, make sure that permanent housing is not lost during the inpatient stay.

(Again, we raised serious questions about the 10 year period of implementation and will provide international examples of success within a shorter period of time.)

Rights of Refugees

2008-02-29T19:31:00.000-08:00

Tessa Bialek

The 1951 United Nations Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees enumerates the rights guaranteed to refugees. Noteworthy guarantees are: a commitment to family reunification, freedom from discrimination, the right to wage-earning employment, the right to housing, and the right to education. These are valuable and essential standards to which all places with refugee populations should commit themselves.

Refugees are people who have lost their country. They are refugees from a conflict that endangers them or a government that persecutes them, people needing safety, resources, or a place to call home. The UNHCR – United Nations Refugee Agency - describes this “world of the stateless – people who do not have the right to own a passport of any particular state, who do not have a country to call their own and who often have minimal, if any, access to the kind of basic political and social rights that most citizens take for granted” (Questions and Answers, 4). Without a state to protect them, refugees are dependent upon the international community and people around the world to ensure their rights.

According to the North Carolina Division of Social Services, in 2006 more than 1500 refugees to the United States were resettled to North Carolina. Many of the refugees come to the triangle area. In my research, I found a blurb on the website of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants website that I thought I would share with you all tonight: “Some of the most welcoming and best-suited places in the United States for the refugees and immigrants who settle here are the smaller cities and towns beyond the main urban centers in which those newly arrived have traditionally concentrated. These smaller communities can offer services and opportunities not available or affordable in big cities. These communities are eager to welcome, support and integrate a diversity of foreign-born new residents” (“Preferred Communities Program”).

Every Wednesday morning, I help in a local ESL class. Currently, the class consists almost exclusively of refugees from Burma. Through my weekly interactions with these wonderful people, I have learned about many of the services (including the free ESL class) offered to local refugees. And, I have to say, I'm impressed. There are language classes, community-member sponsorship programs, job findings services, and more. I would like to think that Chapel Hill and Carrboro are prime examples of the aforementioned "most welcoming and best-suited places" for refugees.

However, it is vitally important to include a continued commitment to refugees when making Chapel Hill and Carrboro human rights cities. Though there are wonderful services offered to the refugees I work with, there are also serious deficiencies. The ESL program doesn't have the funding for new books, dictionaries, or enough teachers. In my class, the most beginning level, it is not unusual for there to be more than 30 students and only one or two teachers. Often, my students quit coming to class after only a few weeks because they must begin working. The students who do have work do not have it easy. Two students clean buildings on campus from midnight to 8am, coming to English class after 8 hours of work. Another student, supporting a wife and three children, has to work two jobs because he was only given 35 hours of work each week at his primary job - 40 hours would have required that he be given benefits. As you can see, there is room for improvement. I hope that the local refugee community and international refugee rights standards are important considerations as the steering committee begins the Human Rights Cities process. Thank you.

Resources:

www.Unhcr.org

http://www.refugees.org/home.aspx

http://www.dhhs.state.nc.us/dss/refugee/

The Rights of the Child

2008-02-29T19:30:00.000-08:00

Shaconda Johnson

Declaration of Rights of Children 1959

Principle 7

The child is entitled to receive education, which shall be free and compulsory, at least in the elementary stages. He shall be given an education which will promote his general culture and enable him, on a basis of equal opportunity, to develop his abilities, his individual judgment, and his sense of moral and social responsibility, and to become a useful member of society.

The best interests of the child shall be the guiding principle of those responsible for his education and guidance; that responsibility lies in the first place with his parents.

The child shall have full opportunity for play and recreation, which should be directed to the same purposes as education; society and the public authorities shall endeavor to promote the enjoyment of this right.

Convention on the Rights of Children 1989

Article 28

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to education and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:

(a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all;

(b) Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, make them available and accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need;

(d) Make educational and vocational information and guidance available and accessible to all children;

(e) Take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of drop-out rates.

My Plans

To explore and enhance how Chapel Hill/Carrboro addresses the education rights of children I plan to volunteer with school age children. One specific way I plan on researching the education rights of the child is to examine the access that children have to recreation/recreational activities, a fundamental aspect of education. I will examine the locations of parks, etc (What types of neighborhoods are they near?).

The Right to Food

2008-02-29T19:24:00.000-08:00

Amy Shaffer

The interdependency of human rights issues, such as the connection between assuring an adequate standard of living, food security, labor rights, and a right to health, explicitly demonstrate the need for connectivity among the community and its organizations as well. Chapel Hill and Carrboro need to understand the dynamic of this interconnectivity and strive to transform this area into a Human Rights City. CH-Carrboro should start by following the precedents of international laws.

Several international laws acknowledge and define the right to food for everyone. It is important to utilize these international frameworks and tailor them at a local level.

A. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes that everyone has a right to an adequate standard of living, including the right to food, clothing and housing; it is the job of the community/state to ensure these rights are realized. It is a fundamental right that everyone is free of hunger—it is through cooperation and other programs that people obtain efficient food production methods, disperse knowledge about nutrition, and ensure adequate distribution of food based on need.

It states in Article 11 that:

“1. The states Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent.”

“2. The States Parties to the present Covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, shall take, individually and through international cooperation, the measures, including specific programmes, which are needed:

B. The Convention on the Rights of the Child states in Article 24 that disease and malnutrition be combated through the provision of adequate, nutritious food.

C. The Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International and Non-International Armed Conflicts prohibits the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Article 54.

D. According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights notes in Article 25 that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing…”

E. Many more international laws (listed on back page of “Circle of Friends” packet)

Food Security in Chapel Hill/ Carrboro

Food security is looked at as a charity in our community, especially from for-profits and local businesses. People in the community have donated items to the local food banks, companies aimed to get favorable media attention by launching food donations, and local restaurants allowed a percentage of profits to help fight hunger during a 1-day community-wide campaign. But, this is charity work—not rights. While the community also seems to recognize the importance of food security, it sometimes leans more towards its international commitments than local goals.

There are two main programs currently in the CH-Carrboro area: The Carrboro Emergency Food Panty, 110 W. Main Street, Carrboro, and The Community Kitchen, 100 W. Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill.

A. Taking a Glance at some of Chapel Hill/Carrboro’s Past and Current Efforts

1) CROP WALK: The Inter-Faith Council for Social Service and Church World Service, hosts, Sunday, April 13^th, the 22nd Annual Chapel Hill/Carrboro CROP Walk. According to the IFC website, the Crop Walk (Crop=Community Reaching Out to People) is a four-mile walk through the streets of Carrboro, Chapel Hill and the UNC Campus aiming to link families and communities together to raise money to provide food and other resources for people locally and around the world. Church World Service, established in 1946, distributes 75% of the money to global hunger education, refugees, disaster relief, and self-help projects in more than 80 countries. The remaining 25% stays in the Carrboro-Chapel Hill area to support the IFC's hunger-relief programs. Last year, 350 walkers participated to raise almost $48,000. About $12,000 went to support the IFC's hunger-relief programs.

2) FUNDRAISERS W/ LOCAL BUSINESSES: In April of 2007, A Southern Season and Rotary District 7710 combined efforts for a day-long fundraiser in which 5 percent of all retail sales in the store and Weathervane went to the Rotarians Against Hunger program—mostly to provide for school lunch programs in developing countries.

3) COMMUNITY/BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP: The IFC’s “Help Out, by Eating Out Day” campaign focused on right to food from a local perspective. It also remained an interactive way to get community involved to participate democratically.

4) CELEBRITY APPROACH: Coach Kay Yow and the “Hoops for Hunger” event aim to get colleges and communities excited about helping to ensure food security in the community. The event is sponsored by Food Bank of Central/Eastern N.C.

I found much evidence that food is treated as a charity, which demeans people and does not allow them their dignity or their equality.

Women's Rights

2008-02-29T19:22:00.000-08:00

Shilpa Hedge and Kaila Ramsey

International law dictates many rights and freedoms for all women.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women calls for complete equality on all levels- including political, social, economic, cultural, and civic aspects for women. In order to ensure this equality is maintained the convention calls for legislative measures and sanctions, modification of existing doctrines that may violate this, and more protection for these rights. Promotion of the rights of women would include the right to vote in all elections and public referenda or stand for election, to participate in all levels of government, and equal representation in non-governmental organizations as well. The convention also advocates protecting women from being forced to take on the status of a spouse during marriage particularly in terms in terms of nationality. In terms of education, women should be granted access to the same level of education as men including the same opportunities for scholarships and study grants and participation in athletic activities. In the area of employment, women must be given the same opportunities as men and have the right to equal remuneration, benefits, treatment, and respect as their male counterparts.

Their rights to social security, job security, and paid leave for incapacity to work must be ensured. Women must also be protected in terms of having safe and healthy work conditions. To ensure there is no discrimination on the basis of marriage or maternity, women must be protected from being fired because of pregnancy or discrimination because of it. They must receive paid maternity leave and not have to sacrifice job seniority or benefits because of this leave. Workplaces must also support women by providing childcare and necessary social services. Women must have equal benefits on the grounds of economic rights (bank loans and other forms of financial credit.) It is also important to ensure they are granted equal access to health care services. In the area of matrimony, women must be allowed the same rights and responsibilities during marriage as their spouse including the ability to freely choose a partner.

The towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro are in many ways already on track to promoting the ideas of women’s rights and what that entails from a global viewpoint, on a local level here in Chapel Hill. The town and the University both have a standing Women’s Center complete with staff running conferences, doing seminars, classes, and support services. Also, many if not all of the town council members are sympathetic to ‘women’s causes’ (more like human causes) and thus the idea of making the implementation of international human rights law a reality is very exciting indeed! We are so excited to be able to take part in the motion that is already stirring here in this area, and see how international women’s human rights can become a reality!!

Meeting with Anita Earls at the Law School

2008-02-13T17:19:00.001-08:00

On February 1, 2008, about 5 students were fortunate to meet with Anita Earls at the Law School. Anita Earls has practiced law with an emphasis on civil rights for over twenty years. After graduating from Yale University, her law career lead her to a firm in Charlotte where she worked with a prominent lawyer who was assigned to such benchmark civil rights cases as Plessey v Ferguson. Earls eventually began to see the law system reverting back and some of the civil rights cases losing ground. Growing up in a multi-cultural family, Earls was compelled to find a context in which to fight for the rights of all people. Eventually, she left work in private sector and is currently a public defender in Durham. It has been her work in the recent months that is vital to our work within Human Rights Cities. Earls believes that civil rights should be viewed through the lens of human rights. She has formed the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (http://www.southerncoalition.org/). The Southern Coalition for Social Justice focuses on using community organization and mobilization in order to enact change. She sees her organization spreading across the South with support from people within communities ranging for lawyers to media experts to people who specialize in community organization.

Here are links to some of her suggested resources:

Carolina Women’s Center

http://womenscenter.unc.edu/

North Carolina Chapter NAACP

http://www.unc.edu/student/orgs/naacp/

North Carolina Chapter of ACLU

http://www.acluofnorthcarolina.org/

Teach-in at Carolina

2008-02-08T11:42:00.000-08:00

Recently, I had the opportunity to go to a Teach-in sponsored by Student Action with Workers, Hear Our Public Employees Coalition, UE 150, SEANC District 25, Progressive Faculty Network, Students for a democratic Society, and SURGE. With all of these organizations put together, they were able to create a panel discussion that included experts in the field of collective bargaining and North Carolina's lack thereof. In listening to Dr. David Zonderman, Ashaki Binta, Steve Hutton, and Rukiya Dillahunt, I was able to learn the history of collective bargaining in NC as well as the movement to try and bring this right not only to Chapel Hill, but to the state as a whole.

History:

Dr. David Zonderman was the first to present and he not only defined the terms of what collective bargaining was, but also gave history as to why NC lacked the right. First, it is important to note that collective bargaining does not mean that people do not have the right to create unions in NC--workers have every right to create a union, its just that nothing that the union does is binding and therefore often moot. North Carolina and Virginia are the only two states that limit people from uniting and bargaining with they employers. That is why these scholars are calling for collective bargaining. This basic process allows workers to pick an association (more often unions than not), and to bargain with administrators or employers in order to improve working conditions.

The limit on collective bargaining began when a rumor was started that an influential group of truckers (known as the teamsters) were going to organize the police for their benefit. This got the government of North Carolina worried and they came up with a statute that stopped them known as NC 95-98. This came out as a ban of unions with the police, firefighters, emergency health providers, etc. This was overturned, and everyone can organize into unions, yet they still cannot bargain.

As of now, there is a bill that is trying to be pushed through the NC legislative system that would allow public bargaining. It is called House Bill 1583. This bill simply says that people have the RIGHT to participate in bargaining if they want to.

The Present:
As of now, however, the bill has yet to pass, and therefore employees are subjected to the will of the employers. Ashaki Binta spoke candidly about this situation and discussed how employers ignore rules and rights of people when it is best for them. In addition, the grievance procedure in this state is not effective. Therefore, people have been unjustly fired and because people cannot bargain to simply put to the table their complaints, problems with decisions, there continues to be discrimination within the workplace.

These discriminations have to do with the fact that women do not get paid as much as men. In addition there is race discrimination where there is a higher rate of discipline and firing of African American men than any other group. White collar jobs are more often than not are full of white people, which is another indication of racial discrimination.

Therefore, it is essential that we try to remove 95-98 from this state. Binta argues that the best way to do this is to build a movement from the bottom up to change the tides. Using lobbyists or big business will not get anything changed because they really do not want to see change. If they can group together workers and force the hand of employers, than the idea of collective bargaining might be more appealing to all than it is now.

North Carolina as a State:
As a state, North Carolina has been faulted by the International Commision for Labor Rights as being guilty of breaking labor rights after they had a hearing full of international lawyers.

In addition, there has been a complaint filed under ILO where North Carolina has been found in violation of international law.

Finally, Mexico filed a complaint about Mexican workers rights' in North Carolina under NAFTA because there is of free trade, there should have the right to bargaining.

To Help:
The best way for students to get involved in this issue is to write your legislator, get signatures on the H.O.P.E. petition and to attend Student Action for Workers on Mondays at 6:00.

Different links to help you do these things are:
http://www.hkonj.com/
http://www.nchope.org/
http://www.uncsolidarity.org

Visiting the Carrboro Human Relations Month Kick-Off Celebration: Health Care Inequities

2008-02-03T14:04:00.000-08:00

On January 27, 2008, the Carrboro Century Center hosted the Human Relations Month Kick-Off Celebration. The stated focus of this meeting was “health care inequities,” with Shannon Fleg and Anthony Fleg as its guest speakers. The meeting began with an interactive, Ghana-inspired performance by Chuck Davis’ African American Dance Ensemble (AADE). Indeed, the ensemble engaged the whole meeting in joining them in performing an African-inspired dance that fostered acceptance and a feeling of openness. After the AADE finished, Mr. William Hencdrickson, the Chair of the Organe County Human Relations Commission, officially welcomed the meeting. Then, Mr. Barry Jacobs, the Chair of the Board of Orange County Commissioners, offered the meeting greetings and a proclamation. Finally, Ms. Vivette Jeffries-Logan, the Vice-Chair of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, introduced the guest speakers. The Flegs offered a presentation in which they discussed and encouraged those in the audience to discuss “false statements,” which are statements that would be true in a perfect society but in today’s society are not (ex: Everyone has healthcare), offered the audience several statistics about healthcare in North Carolina, and then opened the floor up to questions which they audience might have had. The meeting finished with some remarks by Ms. Shoshannah Smith, the Director of the Office of Human Rights and Relations.

All in all, it has become quite apparent that health care is a "hot" issue. Indeed, for a country that is so "advanced," the United States is still struggling on how to effectively provide healthcare for its citizens.

There are many informative and interesting websites out there. If you want more information on this issue, some of the following websites are good places to start.

The United Nations' World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/en/

A Wikipedia encyclopedia article, "Health care in the United States" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States

An article from the Guardian, a UK newspaper, found on GuardianUnlimited: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2167865,00.html

An About.com article, "What is Universal Health Care?" by Bobbie Sage: http://personalinsure.about.com/cs/healthinsurance1/a/aa060903a.htm

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services website: http://www.hhs.gov/

An action.org press packet has some good information as well: http://www.action.org/website/article.asp?id=839

The Connecticut Coalition for Universal Health Care has posted under its The Case for Universal Health Care in the United States webpage "The Case For Single Payer, Universal Health Care For The United States Outline of Talk Given To The Association of State Green Parties, Moodus, Connecticut on June 4, 1999" By John R. Battista, M.D. and Justine McCabe, Ph.D. : http://cthealth.server101.com/the_case_for_universal_health_care_in_the_united_states.htm

The Commonwealth Fund's publications page lists books that can be ordered from UNC-Chapel Hill that deal with health care: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=221238

In general, the Commonwealth Fund discusses and provides important information regarding the U.S. and its healthcare, as well as discussing the presidential candidates and how they "would" affect healthcare in the U.S. : http://www.commonwealthfund.org/

Thanks to books.google.com, you can read
Healthcare Infostructures: The Development of Information-Based Infrastructures for the Healthcare Industry by Information-Based Infrastructure Project, Diebold: http://books.google.com/books?id=joIMwwnevcEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=united+states%2B+healthcare#PPR6,M1

The Kaiser Family Foundation posted "Health Care Spending in the United States and OECD Countries, January 2007" on its website, with some great graphs and charts if you are a visual person: http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm010307oth.cfm

Basically, if you do a google.com search, you will find that there is a plethora of information available out there! Enjoy and go human rights!

Carrboro Economic Development plan

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The following information can be found at the Town of Carrboro website http://www.ci.carrboro.nc.us/ecd/default.htm provided in the Creating Carrboro's Economic Future - Final Report. First, it lays out the demographics of Carrboro as compared to the surrounding communities and the state as a whole. It describes changes that are in the works and suggest further areas for development. I encourage you to think of the consequences these economic expansions could incur. Who owns this land now? Who benefits from these developments? Who maybe hurt by them? Are these developments necessary or are poorly motivated?

People

The following table shows that Carrboro has a greater percentage of Latinos as compared to surrounding communities. This is mainly due to the abundance of low rent housing.

Ethnic Group Composition -2000
White African American Latino
Carrboro 72.7% 13.9% 12.3%
Chapel Hill 78.0% 14.0% 4.5%
Orange County 78.0% 14.0% 4.5%
North Carolina 72.1% 21.9% 4.7%

Income

The gap between income levels clearly displays that the distribution of income is mostly held by 28.6% of the populations, those whom own homes. 19.0% of the population is below the poverty line, including 13.1% of those under age 18 and 6.1% of those age 65 or over (2000).

Median Per Capita Income - 2000
Homeowners Renters Discrepancies
Carrboro $70,148 (28.6%) $27,614 (63.5%) $42,534 (-34.9%)
North Carolina $46,287 (61.6%) $26,140 (27.2%) $20,147 (34.4%)

Education

Employment

The percentage of individuals employed in the (cleverly worded) Accommodations and Food Services industry is twice the size of the surrounding community.

Economic Proposals

Proposals prior to this report :

Five projects are in Carrboro’s development pipeline at the time of this report. One large mixed used development (66 acres) has been approved as well as a new commercial office building. Three projects have been proposed but not yet approved by the town. In addition to the large mixed-use development, the other four projects would add Regional Technology Strategies approximately 500,000 square feet of additional space if completed, a significant increase in the town’s commercial property. Table 12 lists these projects.

300 E Main(Downtown)

A mix of offices, retail shops, apartments and possibly a hotel has been proposed by the town to be built over 416,660 sq ft of this roughly 650,000 sq. ft. area.

201 Maple Ave (Downtown)

Currently a parking lot the town has suggested 47,588 sq ft to be turned into a mix of offices, retail and residential areas

1318 Homestead (Northern Transition Area)

Surrounding the 1,822,500 sq. ft. (shown above) 66.74 acres has been APROVED for development. Subdivision containing single family homes, townhomes and apartments and 20 commercial lots are to be built here.

Renee Lynne Ct
(Off Smith Level Rd.)

9,000 sq ft Approved -Part of the Rock Hill Center commercial subdivision. Three buildings have been completed and an additional two have been proposed and approved.

New Proposed Developments:

Outside of downtown there are more than 100 acres of commercially-zoned parcels. Appendix 4 provides a list of all of Carrboro’s vacant commercial parcels and their permitted uses.
Regional Technology Strategies 33 It is useful to analyze more specifically the different commercial nodes in Carrboro—their assets and challenges, as well as their suitability for various types of businesses.

Downtown Development

In addition to being an attractor for businesses due to its unique nature, downtown also represents the most environmentally sustainable path for commercial development in town. Downtown is walkable, meaning that employees of companies could drive to
work and walk to lunch, an option that doesn’t exist in most parts of the Triangle. Also, public transportation links and good bike lane access encourage non-car travel to the downtown.

With the kinds of developments proposed to this area, how long will the positive aspects like these last? Is the “most environmentally sustainable” really where we want to draw the line? Also further traffic to this area will create an impossible parking problem. Going downtown will become more of a hassle than the current pleasure most residents describe.

The tree lines and unused parking lot space shown here are other places of suggested development.

Where we are so far

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As a class, we have set out on an adventure of epic proportions. We are doing something that will unite rather than divide. Together, we are starting the process of making Chapel Hill and Carrboro, North Carolina Human Rights Cities. What does this mean, especially at a place like Chapel Hill? For us, the ultimate goal is to for these towns to be a place where all people's individual and communal rights are protected and respected in regards to social and cultural rights, as well as economic and political rights. This forum is a place where we will be posting where we have been going and who we have been talking to in hopes to reach our goal. We hope that you will take time to interact with us and let us know what we are doing that is working, what is not working, and in the end, the most important thing for us is information on where work still needs to be done in the community. As a class, we value your voice and look forward to engage with you on how Chapel Hill and Carrboro can be adherent to the rights of all people.