August, 23 2017, 07:45am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Email:,press@civilrights.org,Phone: (202) 869-0398
Civil and Human Rights Coalition Slams Trump's Remarks in Phoenix
Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, released the following statement on President Trump's remarks at a campaign event in Phoenix today:
"President Trump again chose to fan the flames of hate and division. His lack of moral credibility was on full display in Phoenix and his failing, pathetic attempts to revise history were another abdication of leadership. When it comes to civil and human rights, we must all stand together against those seeking to divide us."
WASHINGTON
Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, released the following statement on President Trump's remarks at a campaign event in Phoenix today:
"President Trump again chose to fan the flames of hate and division. His lack of moral credibility was on full display in Phoenix and his failing, pathetic attempts to revise history were another abdication of leadership. When it comes to civil and human rights, we must all stand together against those seeking to divide us."
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States. Through advocacy and outreach to targeted constituencies, The Leadership Conference works toward the goal of a more open and just society - an America as good as its ideals.
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Ilhan Omar Says GOP Calls to Put Student Protesters on Terror Watch List 'Insanely Dangerous'
Sen. Marsha Blackburn put "a target" on protesters across the country with her latest attack on them, said Omar.
Apr 30, 2024
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar on Tuesday urged her colleagues to condemn the latest Republican threat against the thousands of university students and faculty who have protested U.S. complicity in Israel's assault on Gaza, after Sen. Marsha Blackburn suggested the protesters have "promoted terrorism" and called for them to be surveilled by the federal government.
"Any student who has promoted terrorism or engaged in terrorist acts on behalf of Hamas should be immediately added to the terrorist watch list and placed on the [Transportation Security Administration] No-Fly List," said the Tennessee Republican.
Blackburn's comments came nearly two weeks after a solidarity encampment set up by students at Columbia University—and the suspension and arrests of more than 100 participants—galvanized students at dozens of schools across the United States and around the world to call for their institutions to divest from Israel and for the U.S. to cut off military funding for the Middle Eastern country.
More than 1,000 students, educators, and other supporters have been arrested, with videos of particularly aggressive police responses at schools including Emory University in Atlanta, Washington University in St. Louis, and University of Texas at Austin further sparking anger among opponents of Israel's bombardment.
Omar (D-Minn.) called Blackburn's comments "insanely dangerous."
Blackburn previously denounced the protesters as "unruly" and "terrorist sympathizers."
Numerous reports have described how the anti-war protests have been peaceful until police officers began violently arresting attendees, while opponents have shared "escalating unhinged calls to crack down" on the demonstrations, said Intercept reporter Murtaza Hussain.
Also on Tuesday, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, urging him "investigate and prosecute" organizers of the protests" and accusing them of "conspiring to violate the civil rights of a religious minority," referring to Jewish Americans.
Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called on President Joe Biden to summon the National Guard to clamp down on the protests.
Johnson's call was echoed by Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).
"The calls from Cotton and Hawley to deploy the National Guard are not about anyone's safety—many of the pro-Palestinian protesters, against whom the might of the U.S. military would be aimed, are Jewish," wrote Adam Serwer at The Atlantic. He recalled that in 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fatally shot four young students at Kent State University.
"Sending the National Guard to campuses facing Vietnam War protests led to students being killed, including some who had nothing to do with the protests, rather than to anyone being safer," wrote Serwer. "The most likely outcome based on past precedent would be an escalation to serious violence. Which might be the idea."
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UN Tax Convention Presents Historic 'Opportunity to Create Well-Being for All'
"At the U.N., low- and middle-income countries are in the majority, and they want a fair system where their voices are heard."
Apr 30, 2024
Tax justice advocates this week are expressing hope that delegates at a United Nations summit aimed at drafting an international tax convention will take the "once-in-a-century opportunity," as one campaigner and researcher said, to place the common good at the center of the global tax system instead of individual and corporate greed.
Representatives of U.N. member states are meeting for the Ad Hoc Committee to Draft Terms of Reference for a United Nations Framework on International Tax Cooperation, following decades of campaigning by countries in the Global South.
"It's happening," said Rebecca Riddell, policy lead for Oxfam America. "The start of historic negotiations for a fairer global tax system. We're here because of the leadership of African countries. Because of the 125 states that voted yes. And because of tireless civil society efforts."
The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution last November calling for the meeting, with the committee required to submit "terms of reference to the General Assembly by August and a final vote on a tax convention framework expected by the end of 2025.
At the Tax Justice Network (TJN), Sergio Chaparro-Hernandez wrote last week that the negotiations are taking place with an "unprecedented level of transparency," with civil society groups able to account for the positions adopted by each state.
Another "noteworthy development" as the meeting gets underway, said Chaparro-Hernandez, is that "several of the 48 countries that had voted against Resolution 78/230 last year are now actively participating in the process."
"The European Union, for example, which voted as a bloc against the resolution last year, accepted the path set out by the resolution by stating in its initial statement at the organizational session that, 'the UN framework convention on tax cooperation can and should serve to further promote tax transparency and fair taxation,'" he added.
Along with TJN, other civil society groups including the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), Eurodad, and Greenpeace are participating in the committee meeting and lobbying for a far-reaching convention framework that will "redefine the pillars of the international tax system and to make it fully inclusive, just, and effective."
"At the U.N., low- and middle-income countries are in the majority, and they want a fair system where their voices are heard," said Maria Ron Balsera, a researcher at CESR.
Under current global tax rules, the wealthiest individuals and corporations pocket $480 billion each year through the use of tax havens and other forms of tax evasion, said Greenpeace on Tuesday, "most countries just can't cover people's basic needs, nor meet their climate and biodiversity targets and commitments."
"The U.N. Tax Convention is a historical opportunity to create well-being for all, by moving decision-making power from a few rich [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] countries to the U.N. where every country has a vote," said the group.
Chenai Mukumba, executive director of Tax Justice Network Africa, spoke to attendees of the committee meeting about prioritizing mechanisms to crack down on tax evasion.
"While we flag the importance of this work to developing countries, we cannot overemphasize that inclusive and effective tax cooperation is important that has benefits for our global community," said Mukumba. "The international community as a whole is better off when we have more countries that have resources and capacity to provide their citizens with essential services."
On Monday, Greenpeace Africa's pan-African political strategist Fred Njehu wrote to Ramy Mohamed Youssef, chair of the U.N. Tax Convention Committee, and addressed him not only as an advocate but as "a dad, a concerned citizen, and a taxpayer."
Changing global tax rules and ensuring the wealthy pay their fair share, said Njehu would unlock "the money for everyone’s basic needs and the recovery of climate and nature."
"We both know that this is mostly because multinational corporations have been exploiting the majority of the world for way too long, and governments in some rich countries have facilitated it," said Njehu. "They're making billions on the destruction of the world and our suffering. And then, they hide their profits in tax havens. A downward spiral where wealth and power have become so concentrated as to threaten democracy, civilization, and the living world we're part of."
"Mr. Youssef, you have a big responsibility and a unique opportunity to turn things around this year," he added. "Civil society, academics, and countries that represent 80% of the world’s population are backing you and your colleagues at the U.N. Tax Convention Committee to change the global tax rules, which are critical for how the global economy works... Now we need equality, transparency and accountability. Polluters must pay and the wealthy must be taxed fairly."
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Biden Restores, Expands Bedrock Environmental Law Gutted by Trump
"Today's rule restores strong environmental review of federal actions and will go a long way towards having a meaningful process to assess the health and safety impacts of an array of projects," said one campaigner.
Apr 30, 2024
In a clear demonstration of how U.S. President Joe Biden's priorities differ from those of his GOP predecessor, the Democrat on Tuesday finalized a two-part push to revive and strengthen a landmark environmental law eviscerated by the Trump administration in 2020.
While in office, former Republican President Donald Trump—who has pledged to "drill, baby, drill" if he wins back the White House—attacked the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which ensures communities can weigh in on projects that are built nearby or otherwise impact them.
The White House Council on Environmental Quality on Tuesday released regulations that "aim to undo Trump's gift to polluters," in the words of Food & Water Watch, one of several groups that applauded the Biden administration's new rules.
"This rule is yet another reminder that we do not have to choose between environmental justice and meeting our energy needs."
"NEPA gives communities the power to participate and advocate for themselves when the federal government greenlights polluting projects like factory farms and fossil fuel power plants," said Food & Water Watch legal director Tarah Heinzen. "Today's rule restores strong environmental review of federal actions and will go a long way towards having a meaningful process to assess the health and safety impacts of an array of projects."
"Over the past few years, NEPA has been targeted by polluters and their political allies as an impediment to permitting sensible and necessary projects," Heinzen noted. "But this is simply not the case; full, transparent consideration of a project's impacts—including climate and environmental justice impacts—is critical to informed decision making and ultimately transitioning away from fossil fuels."
In addition to reinstating provisions gutted under Trump, Biden's rule introduces new climate and environmental justice requirements.
"These are the most significant improvements in decades to the NEPA process that analyzes gas pipelines, power plants, and other polluting projects," said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "These rules undo the damage from both the previous administrations' efforts to weaken NEPA and the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023."
Hartl also highlighted some inconsistency with Biden's record, saying that "these rules come not a moment too soon, as the Department of Energy, the Bureau of Land Management, and other federal agencies continue to unthinkingly approve climate-killing fossil fuel projects. All federal agencies must now meaningfully adjust their environmental reviews so that fossil fuel companies' profits aren't put above the interests of our most vulnerable communities and our climate."
Friends of the Earth legal director Hallie Templeton similarly praised the progress while stressing that the fight is far from over.
"This marks a victory in our yearslong litigation to reverse the rollbacks and benefits frontline communities who rely on NEPA for a voice in the permitting process and for transparency around our government's activities," said Templeton. "While much more must be done to shore up our nation's environmental and environmental justice laws, this is a certain step in the right direction for safeguarding people and the planet."
Abigail Dillen, Earthjustice's president, emphasized that "smart, transparent blueprinting for the future has never been more important."
"We need to build out the clean energy infrastructure of the future as efficiently and affordably as possible, while forcing a shift in business-as-usual thinking that is driving fossil fuels expansion, entrenching environmental injustice, and accelerating biodiversity loss," she asserted. "This new rule restores NEPA to its original intent while modernizing its implementation to address the scale of the environmental problems we face now."
Sierra Club executive director Ben Jealous pointed out that "this rule is yet another reminder that we do not have to choose between environmental justice and meeting our energy needs."
"Through this commonsense reform, we can unlock the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act and bring abundant clean energy resources online without sacrificing communities or rubber-stamping more fossil fuels," he continued, referencing a package signed by the president in 2022. "We applaud the Biden administration for taking this important step toward ensuring certainty, efficiency, and transparency in the federal environmental review process."
David Watkins, the director of government affairs for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that "by restoring and strengthening key provisions of NEPA, the Biden administration has unequivocally declared that polluting industries will not have the only say in how federal investments and projects are evaluated."
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