Major Human Rights Groups Meet in D.C. to Set Human Rights Agenda for Obama’s First 100 Days

First Public Summit Issues Joint Call to Action

CONTACT: press@ccrjustice.org

January 14, 2009, Washington, D.C. – A summit of  major human rights groups met today to set a human rights agenda for advocates and government for the first 100 days of the Obama administration and beyond. The groups came together and issued a joint “Human Rights Call to Action.”

The event, titled “The First 100 Days: Bringing Human Rights Home” and sponsored by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), addressed key human rights concerns in three consecutive panels: “Domestic Repression and Human Rights,” “Global Detention, Rendition and Torture,” and “Ending the Imperial Presidency.” The summit included the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International USA, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Constitution Project, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, the National Lawyers Guild, the Partnership for Civil Justice, the Torture Abolition Survivors Support Coalition, the US Human Rights Network, and Witness Against Torture

Said CCR Executive Director Vincent Warren, “We came together across organizations to put forward a human rights agenda for the coming days. We are all excited at the chance for a new beginning: it is up to us to make it one we can be proud of.”  

The call to action states,

The human rights community in the United States greets the arrival of the new Obama administration with hope, determination and commitment to pursue a clear human rights agenda. Abuse, torture and the violation of rights must be rejected and replaced by a new vision of human rights and social justice.

The issues that concern the human rights community are fundamental for the future of the United States: ending torture, arbitrary detention, and extraordinary rendition, including closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay and rejecting preventive detention models; ending surveillance abuses, attacks on dissent, and targeting of immigrant groups and other communities of color; and ensuring human rights, civil rights and civil liberties.

At the core of all of these issues is restoring the rule of law, reining in executive power, ending abuses, and ensuring accountability.

All of our organizations are brought here by our conviction that human rights must be fully implemented by the United States, at home and abroad. We call upon President Barack Obama, Congress, and the incoming administration to restore, protect and expand human rights.

To that end, we are committed to – and we call upon our supporters and members to – act and organize, calling for a human rights agenda: to write letters to the editor, to Congress, and to the new administration; to organize vigils, film showings, meetings and protests; to speak with friends, neighbors and communities; to advertise, create media, and educate others about these critical issues and the importance of ensuring human rights, in the first 100 days of the Obama administration and beyond.

• Demissie Abebe, Torture Abolition Survivors Support Coalition
• Ajamu Baraka, US Human Rights Network
• Devon Chaffee, Human Rights First
• Matthew Daloisio, Witness Against Torture
• Jennifer Daskal, Human Rights Watch
• Annette Warren Dickerson, the Center for Constitutional Rights
• Sharon Bradford Franklin, The Constitution Project
• Dalia Hashad, Amnesty International USA
• Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, National Lawyers Guild and Partnership for Civil Justice
• Caroline Fredrickson, American Civil Liberties Union
• Kareem Shora, American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee
• Vincent Warren, Center for Constitutional Rights

The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.