Multinational Body Finds U.S. Violating Human Rights Accord

Government told to remedy District's lack of voting rights in Congress

The United States has been found in violation of a 1948 international human rights agreement for failing to provide D.C. residents with "an effective opportunity to participate" in Congress.

"America’s era of impunity is over," D.C. democracy advocate Timothy Cooper said, hailing the decision on a complaint he and 22 other D.C. residents, calling themselves the Statehood Solidarity Committee, filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in April 1993 on behalf of all U.S. citizens residing in the nation’s capital.

Cooper characterized the ruling as a "monumental embarrassment internationally" for the U.S. government.

"As the U.S. president and Congress seek to justify the Iraq war for promoting democracy and human rights, this decision in their own backyard will resonate around the globe," he said.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams welcomed the decision "that the U.S. is denying full democratic rights to the citizens of its capital city" and said it "will help us in our quest for basic civil and human rights for the citizens of the District of Columbia."

The human rights commission, one of the principal enforcement entities of the multinational Organization of American States (OAS), made the decision based on its determination that the petitioners had exhausted available domestic avenues to remedy the District of Columbia’s lack of voting representation in Congress before they appealed for international help.

The commission’s ruling recommends that the United States adopt "the legislative or other measures necessary to guarantee ... the effective right [of D.C. citizens] to participate, directly or through freely chosen representatives and in general conditions of equality, in their national legislature." Many legal experts and a court ruling in recent years have asserted that a constitutional amendment would be required to give D.C. citizens full representation in Congress unless the District were granted equal status through attaining statehood.

Ratified last Dec. 29 and to be included in the commission’s annual report to the OAS General Assembly, the decision notes that the commission "will continue evaluating the measures adopted by the United States [with respect to its recommendations] until they have been complied with." The commission took action to publish its ruling after the U.S. government failed to implement its recommendations in accordance with the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man.

The United States is one of 35 member countries of the OAS, which was established in 1890 to strengthen peace and security in the hemisphere, promote representative democracy, ensure peaceful settlement of disputes among members, provide for common action in the event of aggression and promote economic, social and cultural development in North, Central and South America.

The human rights commission has played an important role in challenging human rights abuses in specific countries, including Haiti in the early 1990s, and played a key role in the 1989 release of almost 2,000 political prisoners of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.

The text of the commission’s decision on the D.C. petition may be read online at http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/2003eng/USA.11204.htm. Commission member Robert K. Goldman, who represents the United States, recused himself from discussion and voting on the case.

Members of the Statehood Solidarity Committee, all identified as D.C. residents when the 10-year-old petition was filed, are Cooper, Linda Allen, James Stroud, Mark Thompson, Josephine Butler, Christopher Echols, Lorrie Johnson, Mauro Montoya, James Belnap, Nancy Belnap, Michael Bustamonte, Jo Cooper, Carla Darby, Susan Griffin, Charles Mayo, Terrell Jones, Rena Johnson, Bob Artisst, John Capozzi, Pamela Hughes, James Dixon, James Johnson and Gloria Freeman. Some of the petitioners have died during the intervening period.