Homelessness Law Blog

Today the Law Center is excited to be a part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) consultation in New York City.

The UPR holds UN member countries accountable to human rights standards by requiring that all members submit reports to the Human Rights Council every four years.  This is the United States’ first review since the UPR was created in 2006. As a part of the review, the U.S. government is required to consult with civil society.

About 80 people*  are in attendance for presentations by advocates highlighting human rights issues related to housing, employment and labor, education, health and criminal justice. Representatives from the State, Housing & Urban Development, and Justice Departments among others, are present.

Of course, we’re highlighting housing rights. The Law Center is a co-sponsor of the consultation, and we assembled the panel on housing rights. Click here to read the testimony presented this morning by Human Rights Program Director Eric Tars.

If you’re on Twitter, you can follow the consultation through our live feed. Check us out at @NLCHPhomeless.

You can also see photos from the consultation here.

Stay tuned for more!

*More than 120 RSVP’d, but snow prevented some from getting to the site of the consultation.

Last Friday, senior members of five government agencies held a meeting with about 2 dozen domestic human rights organizations to gather their input as part of the government’s preparation to submit its report for the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on how the U.S. is meeting its human rights obligations.  Just one of hundreds of meetings of advocates and government officials that happen every day in Washington, DC.  But as I rode the train home from the UPR consultation, I really started to think about this meeting and what it meant to me personally.

For the past six years, since I graduated from law school, one of my main professional goals has been to generate a real domestic human rights dialogue in this country using these UN human rights treaty processes and mechanisms as a point for beginning the conversation.  For five of those years, under the Bush Administration, we met with officials in the State Department who were responsible for dealing with these human rights treaties. But as domestic advocates, we knew that the State Department wasn’t who we really needed to talk to – it was HUD, or the DOJ, or the Education Department – the agencies who make policy that affects the people whose rights we work to protect.  We demanded that these agencies be brought into the process, not just for the State Department to gather information from, but for State to send the recommendations of the human rights monitoring bodies to, so they could implement them.  And we demanded that these agencies be brought into a conversation with advocates so we could talk directly to them about their human rights obligations.For five years, we made incremental progress, but not much in terms of tangible change.  This was tremendously frustrating, but as advocates, we knew that we couldn’t give up.  And even though we couldn’t see it immediately, our message that we were serious and weren’t going away was sinking in, especially with career staff in the State Dept.

At this meeting on Friday, and in the meetings that have happened in New Orleans and Chicago, and are scheduled in NYC, Albuquerque, Dearborn, Birmingham, and San Francisco, we have finally begun to get what we’ve been asking for.  We have seen several meetings with senior governmental staff, not just in State, but in Justice, Education, Labor, Housing & Urban Development, Homeland Security, OMB, etc., where domestic government agencies have engaged in a dialogue based on the assumption that they do have human rights obligations, and that they may have to do something to address them.

I know that dialogue is just dialogue – it’s still a far way from policy change and even further from change on the ground.  And to date, many of the recommendations of these human rights bodies – for a stop to the demolitions of public housing, for one-for-one replacement of subsidized housing units, for a concrete plan and actions to remedy the disparate racial impact of homelessness on African Americans – have not happened, even under the Obama Administration.  But I do think this is the beginning of the conversation we’ve been asking for; at least now there are people in these agencies who will know what we’re talking about when we talk about their human rights obligations.

After a while of wondering if what we’re doing is making a difference, I’ve got hope again that we’re beginning to see a fundamental shift in the effectiveness of our advocacy as human rights advocates.  And that’s something worth celebrating even on a grey, snowy day.

-Eric Tars, Human Rights Program Director

Welcome to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty’s blog. We’re excited to use this new platform to tell you more about how and why the Law Center is working to end homelessness in America.

The current U.S. foreclosure and economic crises are fueling dramatic surges in homelessness. Before the crises, up to 3.5 million Americans experienced homelessness each year. Now, that number is projected to rise by another 2 million. And these figures include only those who are literally homeless–not those doubled up or on the brink of literal homelessness.

We can, and must, do something to ensure that everyone in America has decent, affordable housing. The Law Center is deeply committed to that goal.

If you’re just learning about the Law Center, visit our website to read more.

If you’d like to start receiving our monthly e-newsletter, send your contact information to chwang@nlchp.org.

Have questions? Feel free to contact us at nlchp@nlchp.org or call us at 202-638-2535.