restoring civil rights and protecting marginalized communities
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Restoring civil rights and protecting marginalized communities. June 22, 2012 Anna Bartlett, UUSC Civil Liberties Assoc. Shahid Buttar, BORDC Executive Director. “A small group of people can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”. - Margaret Mead. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SERVICE COMMITTEE
689 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
www.uusc.org · 617-868-6600 [email protected] Advancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining HandsAdvancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining Hands
Restoring civil rights and protecting marginalized communities
June 22, 2012Anna Bartlett, UUSC Civil Liberties Assoc.Shahid Buttar, BORDC Executive Director
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SERVICE COMMITTEE
689 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
www.uusc.org · 617-868-6600 [email protected] Advancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining HandsAdvancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining Hands
““A small group of people A small group of people can change the world. can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”thing that ever has”
- Margaret Mead
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SERVICE COMMITTEE
689 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
www.uusc.org · 617-868-6600 [email protected] Advancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining HandsAdvancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining Hands
Civil Liberties at UUSCCivil Liberties at UUSC
• Youth activists in the Middle East and North Africa
• Support for torture survivors and US accountability for torture
• Racial and religious profiling in the US
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SERVICE COMMITTEE
689 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
www.uusc.org · 617-868-6600 [email protected] Advancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining HandsAdvancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining Hands
Racial and Religious Racial and Religious ProfilingProfiling
Building Bridges for Civil Liberties:UUSC brings togetherUnitarian Universalistswith local Muslimcommunities to learn about the civil-liberties violations facing Muslims in the United States and develop strategies to address these injustices.
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SERVICE COMMITTEE
689 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
www.uusc.org · 617-868-6600 [email protected] Advancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining HandsAdvancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining Hands
Racial and Religious Racial and Religious ProfilingProfiling
Restoring rights at the local level - UUSC supports BORDC to mobilizediverse communities to restore andimplement local legislativeprotections through the Local CivilRights Restoration Platform
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SERVICE COMMITTEE
689 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
www.uusc.org · 617-868-6600 [email protected] Advancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining HandsAdvancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining Hands
Bill of Rights Defense Bill of Rights Defense CommitteeCommittee
• Worked with UUSC on 3 Building Bridges workshops
• Official UUSC partner since November 2011
• Focused support on the Local Civil Rights Restoration (LCRR) campaign
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SERVICE COMMITTEE
689 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
www.uusc.org · 617-868-6600 [email protected] Advancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining HandsAdvancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining Hands
BORDC’s Organizing BORDC’s Organizing ApproachApproach
BORDC brings together groups that haven’t worked together: civil libertarians alongside civil rights groups:
• Cohesive campaigns functionally addressing several formally distinct issues at once…
• …uniting diverse communities around specific goals
Benefits• List-building: allies include chapters of ACLU,
NAACP, CAIR, ACCESS, NYU’s Brennan Center, and others
• Public education - even within coalitions• Media tractions: local campaigns have forced
media coverage of the underlying issues
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SERVICE COMMITTEE
689 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
www.uusc.org · 617-868-6600 [email protected] Advancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining HandsAdvancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining Hands
Local Civil Rights Local Civil Rights Restoration Campaigns Restoration Campaigns
Legislative limits on law enforcement agencies:– Profiling according to race, religion, national
origin, or political affiliation– Local immigration enforcement (Arizona’s
SB-1070, S-Comm)– Government spying (Fusion centers +
JTTFs +SAR)
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SERVICE COMMITTEE
689 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
www.uusc.org · 617-868-6600 [email protected] Advancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining HandsAdvancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining Hands
Local Campaigns: Local Campaigns: AlliesAllies
Shared goals create a vehicle for broad coalitions that can:• Bring new voices to the debate• Create political space• Shift the landscape
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SERVICE COMMITTEE
689 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
www.uusc.org · 617-868-6600 [email protected] Advancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining HandsAdvancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining Hands
Local Campaigns: Local Campaigns: ProcessProcess• 1-3 months
– BORDC identifies a local partner– BORDC recruits local allies to expand coalition
• 4-6 months – Craft a jurisdiction-specific vehicle (e.g., letter,
petition, event) to engage allies and local officials
– Public education campaign (e.g., public events, education, mobilization, media outreach, op-eds)
• 6-9 months – Legislative outreach
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SERVICE COMMITTEE
689 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
www.uusc.org · 617-868-6600 [email protected] Advancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining HandsAdvancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining Hands
National SnapshotNational Snapshot
• Simmering boil on LCRR campaign– Local victories in Hartford, CT and
San Francisco, CA– Recent votes in Amherst, MA and
Berkeley, CA– Continuing activity in 20 other sites– New campaigns in Chicago,
Charlotte, Cambridge
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SERVICE COMMITTEE
689 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
www.uusc.org · 617-868-6600 [email protected] Advancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining HandsAdvancing Human Rights is the Work of Many Joining Hands
Getting involvedGetting involved
What you can do:
• Outreach to potential allies and report back - get the word out about the campaign
• Sponsor/attend ally events and forums - support campaign allies
• Organize educational forums at your congregation - take the initiative