October, 26 2022, 09:36am EDT
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US: Protect the Right to Vote
Adopt All Measures Needed to Guarantee Access, Integrity
WASHINGTON
Election officials in the United States have human rights obligations to ensure that everyone entitled to vote in the November 8, 2022 elections are able to do so freely and without fear of intimidation or violence, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch issued a report in a question-and-answer format to describe the human rights imperatives, guided by international law, to protect the right to vote and the integrity of elections in the United States.
"The 2022 general elections in the United States are an important test of the country's resolve to adhere to fundamental principles of democracy and human rights," said Amanda Klasing, head of the US democracy initiative at Human Rights Watch. "Election officials themselves are under threat, and US officials should urgently ensure that voters, poll workers, and civic groups can participate freely in the electoral process, without fear or intimidation."
In its report, Human Rights Watch addresses the need to align US elections procedures with international human rights standards, including prohibitions against any racial discrimination in voting. It also discusses the critical role that civil society organizations play in protecting the integrity of US elections and key questions such as government's responsibility to counter misinformation and to act to prevent voter intimidation, including the presence of weapons or law enforcement in polling places.
While international human rights law "does not impose any particular electoral system," the United Nations says, it does set out voting rights and nondiscrimination obligations that are binding on the national, state, and local governments in the US.
A healthy democracy is one that is based on the will of the people and protects the rights of all, Human Rights Watch said. Inclusive democratic institutions are vital to protecting human rights: they help to ensure that people's voices are heard, civic groups can operate independently, elections are free and fair, and rights are protected under law.
In the US, some state and non-state actors are attempting to silence or limit the work of these groups. State laws violate the right to vote and misinformation about the 2020 elections is eroding public faith in elections and democratic institutions. This dynamic is especially visible in the lead up to the November 8 general elections.
The officials charged with administering free and fair elections in the US have come under increased scrutiny, harassment, and even death threats since the 2020 election in part due to false claims by former President Donald Trump and his supporters that there was a conspiracy to deprive him of the presidency in 2020, Human Rights Watch said. A task force of the US Justice Department, in close collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), reported in August 2022 that it had reviewed over 1,000 reports of hostile or harassing incidents against election workers, with almost 11 percent meeting the threshold for a federal criminal investigation. In October, the FBI issued a broad statement of caution about threats to election workers ahead of the November elections.
Human Rights Watch also provides information in the report on the pernicious laws, policies, and practices that limit the power of Black voters, and the important role nongovernmental organizations play in protecting the integrity of US elections. These groups operating at the state and local levels are on the front line of protecting the integrity of US elections. They help to register voters, inform them about their rights and how to vote, and contact local election officials when there are problems.
Civil society and nonpartisan observers play a significant role in a healthy democracy, Human Rights Watch said. Some state lawmakers have passed laws that chill the involvement of nongovernmental groups in registering or supporting voters, including laws with steep fines and even criminal penalties.
International human rights law provides a useful roadmap for a way forward on these and other hot-button issues related to the US election, Human Rights Watch said. As US citizens go to the polls, other human rights concerns in the US and globally are being exposed. One such issue is the link between politicians who foment xenophobic fears to build political power - a theme seen in contacts between officials in Texas and in Hungary, for example. Another is the failure of countries like Brazil and states like Georgia to fully ensure that all eligible voters feel safe and able to exercise their rights without the terror fomented by racial discrimination.
"Racial justice is central to actual realization of the right to vote in the US, in Brazil, and worldwide," Klasing said. "You can't have democracy without racial justice, and you cannot have racial justice without democracy."
The November general elections are very consequential for human rights in the United States. There are 36 governorships up for election, including in influential states such as Texas and Florida. Every state will have state legislative elections, with bills pending in statehouses across the country to protect and to attack many human rights, including the rights to abortion access, peaceful assembly, and more.
All US House of Representative seats are up for election, along with 34 US Senate seats. And there are local ballot initiatives in many states, including in California, Michigan, Kentucky, and Vermont, considering questions related to abortion and contraceptives. These state initiatives have become crucial to ensure continued access to abortion at the state level, as the nearly 50-year federal constitutional guarantee was overturned by the US Supreme Court in June.
Although the US Constitution's Thirteenth Amendment technically abolished the institution of chattel slavery, it provided an exception that allowed for the continuation of slavery "as punishment of crime." Over 150 years after the passage of this amendment, voters in Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont are considering measures that would explicitly prohibit all lingering forms of slavery and indentured servitude. Voters in Colorado, Florida and New Jersey previously took action to prohibit this racist exception.
The US prison labor system is a legacy of slavery and a form of economic exploitation, and racial inequities persist today. Black people are disproportionately incarcerated and thus overrepresented among those working in prison. In December 2020, Human Rights Watch supported an amendment to the US constitution that would "prohibit the use of slavery and involuntary servitude" as a punishment for a crime. Almost one million people in the US are currently working while confined in US prisons.
Specious claims of election fraud, dangerous lawsuits undermining the basic principle of "one person, one vote," and confusing changes to election rules are all dangerous anti-rights forces at play in the current midterm elections and beyond. Human rights offer an easily defined roadmap through this dangerous terrain, Human Rights Watch said.
"Staying the course on ensuring democracy requires dismissing and circumventing all distractions in favor of protecting the right to vote for everyone," Klasing said. "No one, whether a voter or an election official, and no matter their political views, social group, or race, should lose sight of that simple fact."
Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
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"The richest 1% of humanity continues to fill their pockets while the rest are left to scrap for crumbs."
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The richest sliver of the global population hauled in more than $40 trillion in new wealth over the past decade as countries around the world cut taxes for those at the very top, supercharging inequality that poses a dire threat to democracy and the planet.
An Oxfam analysis released Thursday ahead of a meeting of G20 finance ministers estimated that over the past 10 years, the global 1% has accumulated $42 trillion in new wealth. That's "nearly 34 times more than the entire bottom 50% of the world's population," the group observed.
"That is disgusting," Michael Taylor, founder of the Australian Independent Media Network, wrote in response to the new figures.
The analysis comes amid a growing push by current and former world leaders for rich countries to enact a global tax on billionaire wealth that would begin to reverse the damage done by decades of regressive policy. Oxfam found in a separate analysis released earlier this year that economic and political elites' global "war on fair taxation" has slashed taxes for the rich by 32% since 1980.
Oxfam said Thursday that global billionaires "have been paying a tax rate equivalent to less than 0.5% of their wealth."
"Inequality has reached obscene levels, and until now governments have failed to protect people and planet from its catastrophic effects," Max Lawson, Oxfam's head of inequality policy, said in a statement Thursday. "The richest 1% of humanity continues to fill their pockets while the rest are left to scrap for crumbs."
"Momentum to increase taxes on the super-rich is undeniable, and this week is the first real litmus test for G20 governments," Lawson added. "Do they have the political will to strike a global standard that puts the needs of the many before the greed of an elite few?"
A recent report by renowned economist Gabriel Zucman of the University of California, Berkeley outlined how nations could go about implementing a 2% minimum tax on the wealth of global billionaires—a policy change that he shows would raise up to $250 billion in annual revenue that could be used to support a range of priorities, from climate investments to education and healthcare programs.
"Thanks to recent progress in international tax cooperation, a common taxation standard for billionaires has become technically possible," said Zucman. "Implementing it is a question of political will."
The economist's report was commissioned by the government of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has championed a global billionaire tax in the face of resistance from powerful nations, including the United States—which has more billionaires than any other country. In 2018, U.S. billionaires paid a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans.
But reporting indicates that the leaders of G20 nations—which are home to roughly 80% of the world's billionaires—are likely to rebuff Lula's push for billionaire wealth tax, opting instead to pursue what Bloombergdescribed as "research on taxation and inequality that could take years to deliver results."
Reuters similarly reported Wednesday that G20 finance ministers meeting in Brazil "are preparing a joint statement for Thursday in support of progressive taxation that will stop short of endorsing the hosts' proposal for a global 'billionaire tax.'"
The global billionaire wealth surge comes in the context of growing misery for large swaths of the world's population. A report released Wednesday by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that one out of 11 people around the world—or up to 757 million people—"may have faced hunger" last year.
"The world's poorest people are paying the highest price of hunger," Eric Munoz, Oxfam's food policy expert, said in response to the FAO report. "We need deeper, structural policy and social change to address all of the drivers of hunger, including economic injustice, climate change, and conflict."
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Over two dozen organizations on Wednesday demanded that the Biden administration launch a multi-agency investigation into recent reporting that "the Israeli government is engaging in illicit social media influence operations targeting U.S. elected officials and U.S. civil society."
Pointing to June reports by The New York Times, Haaretz, and The Guardian, the groups—including the Center for International Policy, CodePink, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), National Iranian American Council (NIAC), U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) Action, and Win Without War—wrote to President Joe Biden and the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and State.
As Israel began waging war on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the Hamas-led October 7 attack, the country's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs "allocated about $2 million to the operation and hired Stoic, a political marketing firm in Tel Aviv, to carry it out," the Times reported June 5, citing related documents and unnamed Israeli officials.
"Unfortunately, what has been reported thus far could just be the tip of the iceberg."
Although the Israeli ministry denied involvement in the campaign and Stoic didn't respond to requests for comment, the newspaper noted that "at its peak, it used hundreds of fake accounts that posed as real Americans on X, Facebook, and Instagram to post pro-Israel comments. The accounts focused on U.S. lawmakers, particularly ones who are Black and Democrats."
As The Guardian reported on June 24, "That effort is only one of many such campaigns coordinated by the ministry."
The newspaper detailed "a sprawling relaunch of a controversial Israeli government program initially known as Kela Shlomo, designed to carry out what Israel called 'mass consciousness activities' targeted largely at the U.S. and Europe."
"Concert, now known as Voices of Israel, previouslyworked with groups spearheading a campaign to pass so-called 'anti-BDS' state laws that penalize Americans for engaging in boycotts or other nonviolent protests of Israel," The Guardian explained, referring to the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
"Its latest incarnation is part of a hardline and sometimes covert operation by the Israeli government to strike back at student protests, human rights organizations, and other voices of dissent," according to the newspaper. "Voices' latestactivities were conducted through nonprofits and other entities that often do not disclose donor information."
The coalition calling on Biden to launch an investigation wrote that "it is incumbent on our government to protect its citizens from efforts by foreign governments to inappropriately interfere in our democratic process by spreading disinformation, targeting U.S. elected officials, and seeking to intimidate members of U.S. civil society."
Highlighting previous action "to punish and deter such nefarious behavior" by Russian firms, the groups argued that "as an administration that has defined itself as defenders of American democracy against threats from both domestic and foreign state actors, the news of the Israeli government's attacks on our democracy must be addressed."
NIAC president Jamal Abdi said, "What this letter asks for is very simple: that President Biden and his administration treat reports of inappropriate Israeli influence operations with the same seriousness that it has allegations of Russian and Iranian influence campaigns."
"Unfortunately, what has been reported thus far could just be the tip of the iceberg," he continued. "The administration must work to defend our democracy fully, and ensure that no foreign state has a green light to inappropriately target American citizens or manipulate our democratic process."
The U.S. government has provided weapons and diplomatic support for Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed at least 39,145 Palestinians and injured another 90,257, according to local officials, and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
"The United States has failed to protect Palestinian communities, putting them at risk of harm to continue emboldening Israel," USCPR Action policy manager Mohammed Khader said Wednesday. "As the Israeli government and its foreign agents attempt to undermine our collective efforts on Palestinian rights, we strongly urge for the federal government to impose sanctions to hold Israeli officials and institutions accountable for violating the law."
In addition to the reported covert operations, there have been overt actions by Israel's leaders. As Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Wednesday endorsed former U.S. President Donald Trump for the November election, saying that he believes the Republican "will receive the backing to act against Iran," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was invited to address a joint session of Congress, despite protests from American lawmakers.
Trump, Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris—now the presumed Democratic nominee for the November election—are all set to separately meet with Netanyahu while he is visiting the United States.
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One in 11 people globally went hungry in 2023, the latest U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report revealed.
"The report shows that the world has been set back 15 years, with levels of undernourishment comparable to those in 2008-2009," according to the FAO. "An alarming number of people continue to face food insecurity and malnutrition as global hunger levels have plateaued for three consecutive years."
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FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu said in a statement that "transforming agrifood systems is more critical than ever as we face the urgency of achieving the SDGs within six short years. FAO remains committed to supporting countries in their efforts to eradicate hunger and ensure food security for all."
"We will work together with all partners and with all approaches, including the G20 Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, to accelerate the needed change," Qu added. "Together, we must innovate and collaborate to build more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems that can better withstand future challenges for a better world."
FAO argued that "achieving SDG 2 Zero Hunger requires a multifaceted approach, including transforming and strengthening agrifood systems, addressing inequalities, and ensuring affordable and accessible healthy diets for all."
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In the 2000s, Lula's leftist government implemented plans including Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) and Bolsa Familia (Family Allowance) that significantly reduced malnutrition and poverty in Brazil.
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Cindy McCain, executive director of the U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP), said Wednesday that "a future free from hunger is possible if we can rally the resources and the political will needed to invest in proven long-term solutions."
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