Bringing Human Rights Home
Contents
Bringing Human Rights Home
Universal Periodic Review (UPR)
*UPR Pittsburgh Bringing Global Human Rights Home: Pittsburgh's Human Rights Assessment & the United Nations Together with human rights defenders around the country, Pittsburgh residents are working to bring the stories and accounts of human rights conditions in our region to the United Nations through the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process. Over 2019-2020, the United States human rights record will be reviewed by international representatives and human rights experts, and the UN will issue a formal report with recommendations to the US government for improving respect for the country's international human rights obligations. A key to the UPR's effectiveness is engagement from civil society, and we're working to provide opportunities for residents to learn about human rights and the UPR process as we generate ideas for how we can make Pittsburgh and Southwest PA places where human rights thrive.
- For more details see UPR Cities Project
Housing Justice
- Housing is a Human Right-Letter to Officials The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, Leilani Farha, recently directed letters to governments and corporate leaders around the world, pointing out how prevailing policies violate international human rights obligations. This page has details and a template for contacting your local leaders to remind them of their international legal obligations.
- Housing Justice Pittsburgh Building community power to fight displacement and promote our "Right to the City."
- Housing Summit 2018
- Housing is a Human Right: Slideshow on international treaties and opportunities to promote the human right to housing
Learn more about how Amazon's bid to move to Pittsburgh would affect human rights here. Resources, data, and recordings of community forums.
- View community forums on the question of how an Amazon HQ2 would impact us:
International Human Rights Monitoring
This page links to work by national and international human rights organizers to use international treaties and United Nations human rights review processes to hold local and national officials in the United States accountable to our international human rights obligations.
News & Updates
- UN Official Confronts Governments and Corporations on Housing Rights: Recently, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, Leilani Farha held a press conference in Copenhagen to speak about letters released (see links below) to governments and corporations around the world including the United States and the Blackstone Group L.P. Ms. Farha spoke out directly against policies and laws which support housing as a commodity. In the letters to various governments, Ms. Farha stated that these policies and laws contradict governments’ international human rights obligations. Letters: UN Special Rapporteur Letter to US Government On Housing Policies as Human Rights Violations, Letter to Blackstone Investment Corporation, Blackstone's response. Campaign links #MaketheShift #HousingisaHumanRight!
- We're working to get this message to Mayor Peduto and other public officials: If your organization wants to sign this *letter to public officials* please contact us at pghrights[at]riseup[dot]net or via Facebook PGHrights. For more details see Housing is a Human Right!
- Pittsburgh’s Our Water Campaign goes Global: The current issue of the Open Access Journal of World-Systems Research features a symposium on the problem of corporate power and its implications for local democracy. This project was inspired by the recent inter-city competition to host the Amazon 2nd headquarters. See: "Water is a Human Right! Grassroots Resistance to Corporate Power!" (by local water activist Caitlin Schroering).
- Pittsburgh for CEDAW Coalition helps bring Pittsburgh Human Rights Recognition In March 2019, the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/New York awarded Mayor Peduto the Cities for CEDAW Global Leadership Award for his work to implement sustaining policies which eliminate all forms of discrimination against women at the local level. This award would not have been possible without all the hard work of PGH for CEDAW Coalition members to push for the CEDAW ordinance and to design policy recommendations that would ensure its effective implementation.
- Summary of lessons from Housing Justice Movement-Building work 2016-2019 This document provides a synthesis of ideas from conversations about how to advance the human right to housing and challenge market-oriented policies that continue to displace residents.
- Print Media coverage of Racial Justice Summit- This report highlights our breakout session at the 2019 Summit, "Building an Intersectional Movement for Housing Justice"
- Pittsburgh City Council and Mayor Peduto re-affirm their commitment to human rights at the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (See Press Release December 10)
- National Human Rights Cities Alliance Workshop 2018, Washington DC
Human Rights Budgeting-Ideas and Resources for transforming how our city plans: This page shares links and background resources about how activists around the world are working to change the scripts of local politics to prioritize human rights over economic measures of progress. We believe that urban planning and development should be explicit in its attention to human rights and equity. More democratic budgeting processes are key to making this happen, and that means we all need to learn more about how city budgeting works and how it could be re-organized to engage more of the people who live in our region.
