On February 26, 2018, Refugees International joined with 170 other organizations in sending a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson raising concern about the State Department's annual Human Rights Report. In particular, the organizations expressed alarm that the report no longer highlights the full range of abuses and human rights violations experienced by women, girls, LGBTQI people, and other marginalized peoples around the world. The full text of the letter is below.
_________________________________________________
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Dear Secretary Tillerson,
We are writing to you as human rights, health, and development organizations to raise our deep concern about news that the State Department’s annual Human Rights Report will no longer highlight the full range of abuses and human rights violations experienced most especially by women, girls, LGBTQI people, and other marginalized peoples around the world. According to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, officials “will sharpen the focus of the report on abuses of internationally recognized human rights and the most egregious issues.”
According to media reports, this means removing or dramatically changing the way the U.S. Government reports on women’s and girls’ enjoyment of their rights to health, life, freedom from violence, and a host of other rights, including most especially those related to sexual and reproductive health.
As organizations committed to gender equality and women’s human rights, we see in our work how violations of these internationally-recognized human rights are often among the most frequent and egregious abuses women and girls experience. Gender discrimination is a pernicious societal harm that impacts women’s realization of their human rights in extensive and often irrevocable ways. International human rights authorities have clearly established governments’ human rights obligations in the many ways such discrimination is manifest—from violence against women, to maternal mortality, to restrictions on women’s access to comprehensive reproductive and sexual health. Willful failure to include reporting on these rights violations is a callous disregard both of the abuses experienced by women and girls and of established human rights norms that recognize the government obligations to end them.
As the State Department’s Human Rights Reports have historically shown, human rights are indivisible and universal. Threats to women’s human rights cannot be stricken from the report without sending a broader message to abusive governments that the United States will not hold them to account for such violations. When women’s rights are limited, so are broader pathways to empowerment—economic, social, political, or otherwise.
Erasing content that Foreign Service Officers have worked for months to craft based on their expertise and the contributions of civil society and experts around the world undermines efforts of the United States and, more importantly, human rights defenders in their own countries to promote human rights. Although your spokesperson defends this move as an effort to foster efficiency and decrease duplication from other organizations’ reports, you miss the critical point of having the U.S. Government publish them within the context of an extensive human rights analysis. Editing out the breadth of abuses typically covered by this report weakens its usefulness to put governments on notice to address abuses within their borders, and it may embolden them to regress in the promotion of women’s rights.
The power of this report has been putting the full force of the U.S. Government behind the full human rights agenda, and standing in solidarity with rights-based individuals, organizations, and movements everywhere. Publishing this report without all human rights represented jeopardizes this. It will become an incomplete and inaccurate document that is silent on many of the human rights abuses the United States has previously championed to end.
We call on you to uphold the credibility of this important human rights tool—that so many of our colleagues around the world use to hold governments to account. The rights of all people of all genders to enjoy the full spectrum of rights, without discrimination or government interference cannot be in dispute within your department. Your leadership is needed to immediately intervene and reverse course on this decision.
Signed,
9to5, National Association of Working Women
Active Projectile Ltd
Advancing Girls' Education in Africa
Advocates for Youth
Alliance for Peacebuilding
American Atheists
American Jewish World Service (AJWS)
American Psychological Association
Amnesty International USA
APEDDUB
Athlete Ally
Aube Nouvelle pour la Femme et le Développment
AVAC
Bangladesh Model Youth Parliament
Barnabas Charity Outreach
Better World Campaign
Beyond Beijing Committee
CADIRE CAMEROON ASSOCIATION
CARE USA
Catholics for Choice
Center for Biological Diversity
Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)
Center for Reproductive Rights
CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers
CERPA(Centre d'Echanges et de Ressources pour la Promotion des Actions Communautaires)
ChildFund International
CHOICE for Youth & Sexuality
Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights
Council for Global Equality
EngenderHealth
Equality California
Equality Now
F’INE Pasifika Aotearoa
Family Equality Council
FORGE, Inc
Freedom House
Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Friends of UNFPA
Fundacion para Estudio e Investigacion de la Mujer - FEIM-
Futures Without Violence
Gender Equality Initiative, Elliott School, GW
GESTOS- HIV, Communication and Gender
Girl Rising
GirlForward
Global Fund for Children
Global Fund for Women
Global Health Justice Partnership, Yale University
Global Justice Institute, Metropolitan Community Churches
Global Network of Black People working in HIV
Global Progressive Hub
Global Rights for Women
Global Women's Institute
Global Women's Institute at the George Washington University
GreeneWorks
Haus of Khameleon
Heartland Alliance International
HIAS
Housing Works, Inc.
Human Rights Campaign
Human Rights Watch
Ibis Reproductive Health
Inclusive Security
International Action Network for Gender Equity & Law (IANGEL)
International AIDS Society
International Center for Research on Women
International Fellowship of Reconciliation
International Rescue Committee
International Women's Development Agency
International Women's Health Coalition
International Women's Rights Action Watch
International Youth Foundation
International-Curricula Educators Association
IntraHealth International
Ipas
Jacobs Institute of Women's Health
JAGO NARI (Fighting For Women Empowerment)
John Snow, Inc. (JSI)
Kazakhstan Feminist Initiative "Feminita"
Khalili Consulting
Landesa (Rural Development Institute)
Latinoamerican and Caribbean Afrodescendent Women Network
Los Angeles LGBT Center
MADRE
Marie Stopes International
Mercy Corps
Milaan Foundation
NARAL Pro-Choice America
NASTAD
National Abortion Federation
National Alliance to End Sexual Violence
National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF)
National Black Justice Coalition
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Council of Jewish Women
National Employment Lawyers Association
National Network to End Domestic Violence
National Organization for Women
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Resource Center on Domestic Violence
National Women's Health Network
National Women's Law Center
NFBPWC-NYC
NFBPWC-USA
OutRight Action International
OutServe-SLDN
PAI
PARI o DISPARE
PaRiter
Pathfinder International
Peace X Peace
People For the American Way
Plan International USA
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Population Connection Action Fund
Population Council
Population Institute
Pride at Work
Promundo-US
PSI
Rainbow Pride Foundation
Refugees International
Regional Centre for international development cooperation
ReSista
Saferworld
Save the Children
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS)
Shadhika
Sierra Club
Simavi
Smash Strategies
Support Group and Resource Center on Sexuality Studies
Tahirih Justice Center
The Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS
The Employee Rights Advocacy Institute for Law & Policy
The Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF)
The HUBB bk
The Hunger Project
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
The Lesbian and Gay Association of Liberia (LEGAL)
The United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
The Voices and Faces Project
Tonga Leitis Association
TONGA LEITIS Association
Too Young To Wed
U.S. National Committee for UN Women
Union for Reform Judaism
United Methodist Church
United Nations Association-USA
Universal Access Project
University of Pennsylvania
Urgent Action Fund for Women's Human Rights
V-Day and One Billion Rising
Vision Spring Initiatives
Vital Voices Global Partnership
What Works Association
Witness to Mass Incarceration
Women Action for Gender Equality (WAGE)
Women Employed
Women Enabled International
Women for Afghan Women
Women for Peace
Women for Women International
Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS)
omen Thrive Alliance
Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)
Women's Refugee Commission
Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, Moravian College
1Woodhull Freedom Foundation
World Education
YWCA USA
Zonta International