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Housing Is a Human Right
Apr 23, 2010
Our nation is running a $1.4 trillion-dollar budget deficit this year. So why is Congress on track to approve more than $1 trillion for "defense" spending, while cutting back services that most countries think of as human rights? Even in the wake of Obama's landmark health-care legislation, our priorities are out of sync with what the public needs.
Consider this: About 3.5 million Americans--including 1.35 million children--are homeless for significant periods of time over the course of a year, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.
This shouldn't come as a surprise. Under U.S. law, American citizens don't have rights to shelter, food, medical care, or a decent old age. Yet these are human rights, and they're etched into the United Nations' Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Albania, Tunisia, Finland, and dozens of other countries have signed on to this document, which of course has gone unratified by the U.S. Senate.
What part of "in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are created whereby everyone my enjoy his economic, social and cultural rights, as well as his civil and political rights and freedom" do our lawmakers reject?
Homelessness isn't the only indicator that underscores our mistaken priorities. Experts have estimated that at least 20,000 Americans die each year because they lack health insurance and can't get needed care. And a recent study found that 37 million people in this country sought emergency food assistance from food banks in the Feeding America network last year. That's roughly one in eight Americans.
Meanwhile, our country positions itself as the world's leading human rights advocate, ignoring many aspects of what the rest of the world considers to be human rights.
For example, the State Department recently published a report that found Cuba to be violating legal and political rights. The report made no reference to Cuba's success in housing and feeding its people, or providing them with health care.
The skewed policy of focusing on deficiencies in Cuba while ignoring our own glaring lack of substantive rights has characterized every administration for 30 years. Arizona, like many states suffering from reduced revenues, recently slashed its Children's Health Insurance Program. About 47,000 kids--all poor, of course--now have no medical coverage.
Self-righteous human rights attacks on other countries don't help mask glaring needs at home, particularly food and shelter for millions.
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Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
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Saul Landau
Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow and an internationally known scholar, author, commentator, and filmmaker on foreign and domestic policy issues. His latest book is A Bush and Botox World (2006, Counterpunch Press).
Our nation is running a $1.4 trillion-dollar budget deficit this year. So why is Congress on track to approve more than $1 trillion for "defense" spending, while cutting back services that most countries think of as human rights? Even in the wake of Obama's landmark health-care legislation, our priorities are out of sync with what the public needs.
Consider this: About 3.5 million Americans--including 1.35 million children--are homeless for significant periods of time over the course of a year, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.
This shouldn't come as a surprise. Under U.S. law, American citizens don't have rights to shelter, food, medical care, or a decent old age. Yet these are human rights, and they're etched into the United Nations' Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Albania, Tunisia, Finland, and dozens of other countries have signed on to this document, which of course has gone unratified by the U.S. Senate.
What part of "in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are created whereby everyone my enjoy his economic, social and cultural rights, as well as his civil and political rights and freedom" do our lawmakers reject?
Homelessness isn't the only indicator that underscores our mistaken priorities. Experts have estimated that at least 20,000 Americans die each year because they lack health insurance and can't get needed care. And a recent study found that 37 million people in this country sought emergency food assistance from food banks in the Feeding America network last year. That's roughly one in eight Americans.
Meanwhile, our country positions itself as the world's leading human rights advocate, ignoring many aspects of what the rest of the world considers to be human rights.
For example, the State Department recently published a report that found Cuba to be violating legal and political rights. The report made no reference to Cuba's success in housing and feeding its people, or providing them with health care.
The skewed policy of focusing on deficiencies in Cuba while ignoring our own glaring lack of substantive rights has characterized every administration for 30 years. Arizona, like many states suffering from reduced revenues, recently slashed its Children's Health Insurance Program. About 47,000 kids--all poor, of course--now have no medical coverage.
Self-righteous human rights attacks on other countries don't help mask glaring needs at home, particularly food and shelter for millions.
Saul Landau
Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow and an internationally known scholar, author, commentator, and filmmaker on foreign and domestic policy issues. His latest book is A Bush and Botox World (2006, Counterpunch Press).
Our nation is running a $1.4 trillion-dollar budget deficit this year. So why is Congress on track to approve more than $1 trillion for "defense" spending, while cutting back services that most countries think of as human rights? Even in the wake of Obama's landmark health-care legislation, our priorities are out of sync with what the public needs.
Consider this: About 3.5 million Americans--including 1.35 million children--are homeless for significant periods of time over the course of a year, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.
This shouldn't come as a surprise. Under U.S. law, American citizens don't have rights to shelter, food, medical care, or a decent old age. Yet these are human rights, and they're etched into the United Nations' Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Albania, Tunisia, Finland, and dozens of other countries have signed on to this document, which of course has gone unratified by the U.S. Senate.
What part of "in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are created whereby everyone my enjoy his economic, social and cultural rights, as well as his civil and political rights and freedom" do our lawmakers reject?
Homelessness isn't the only indicator that underscores our mistaken priorities. Experts have estimated that at least 20,000 Americans die each year because they lack health insurance and can't get needed care. And a recent study found that 37 million people in this country sought emergency food assistance from food banks in the Feeding America network last year. That's roughly one in eight Americans.
Meanwhile, our country positions itself as the world's leading human rights advocate, ignoring many aspects of what the rest of the world considers to be human rights.
For example, the State Department recently published a report that found Cuba to be violating legal and political rights. The report made no reference to Cuba's success in housing and feeding its people, or providing them with health care.
The skewed policy of focusing on deficiencies in Cuba while ignoring our own glaring lack of substantive rights has characterized every administration for 30 years. Arizona, like many states suffering from reduced revenues, recently slashed its Children's Health Insurance Program. About 47,000 kids--all poor, of course--now have no medical coverage.
Self-righteous human rights attacks on other countries don't help mask glaring needs at home, particularly food and shelter for millions.
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