World Rights' testimony to the Senate Committee on the New Columbia Admission Act
ae...@rcn.com
W O R L D R I G H T S
Human Rights Advocacy Worldwide
September 15, 20014
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
RE: Testimony on the
Implications of the New Columbia Admission Act
Presented to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs
by Timothy Cooper, Executive Director, World Rights
Honorable Thomas R. Carper, Honorable Tom Coburn, and other distinguished members of the Committee,
We write in support of the passage of the New Columbia Admission Act. Our position is non-partisan and based entirely on legal grounds, most particularly pertaining to international human rights law.
The continuing denial of equal congressional voting rights to the citizens of Washington, DC is a serious human rights violation, and places the Government of the United States of America in contravention of numerous international human rights treaties and other international agreements, chief among which is the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
This international human rights treaty was ratified by the Senate in 1992; its ratification by the Senate and subsequent signing by the President makes its provisions, except for those where reservations were attached, legally binding on the United States. The Senate made no reservations with regard to the right to representation. The treaty therefore obligates the U.S. to guarantee all its citizens, including D.C. residents, equal political participation in their national legislature through duly elected representatives. The U.S. State Department has recognized this fact.
While the U.S.
Constitution appears to sanction the denial of congressional voting rights to
Washingtonians, the U.N. Committee maintains that there is no reasonable modern-day
justification for the continuing curtailment of equal congressional voting
rights to District of Columbia residents under the terms of the treaty. Indeed, as recently as March 2014, the U.N. Human
Rights Committee reiterated its “concern that residents of the District of
Columbia are denied the right to vote for and election of voting
representatives to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.”
The Committee cited articles 2, 10, 25, and 26 of the ICCPR that pertain to a guarantee of voting rights in the national legislature to all citizens as well as to the right to equality before the law for all people.
The Committee went on to make its recommendation to the United States that it “provide for the full voting rights of residents of Washington, D.C.”
The U.N.’s most recent position is consistent with the position taken by every major international human rights monitoring body in the world, including the Organization for American States (OAS) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The issue of equal DC voting rights and statehood has already been exhaustively reviewed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In 2003, it released its final report and issued recommendations, which called for equal congressional voting rights for D.C. residents. We wish to direct the Committee’s attention to the Commission’s report in the case of “Statehood Solidarity Committee v. the United States,” which may be found at:
http://cidh.org/annualrep/2003eng/USA.11204.htm
The OSCE’s Parliamentary Assembly (PA) as well as its Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has also repeatedly noted that the position of the United States regarding D.C.’s disenfranchisement is inconsistent with its obligations under the 1990 Copenhagen Document, which defines the civil and political rights each member state of the OSCE is obligated to guarantee its own citizens, including equal representation in their own national legislature.
In light of the US’s recognized human rights obligations, undertaken freely by the United States and supported in full measure by the U.S. Senate, we ask the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to support equal congressional voting rights for the residents of America’s capital city and to seek final passage of all necessary legislation to secure these rights to District of Columbia residents in perpetuity.
With kind regards,
Timothy Cooper
Executive Director
3335 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20016
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+64 905-16660
www.world-rights.org
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add Within the Limits of the Law, because law is often but the tyrants' will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." ---Thomas Jefferson
"I believe that to meet the challenges of our times, human beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. Each of us must learn to work not just for oneself, one's own family or nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace." --H. H. the Dalai Lama