Human Rights Principles for U.S. Activists
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| Photo (l to r): Miss Major, Melenie Elekene and Grace Lawrence of Transgender, Gender-Variant and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP) and Namita Chad, of Astraea Photo by Miles Goff |
Every seat was filled and additional people stood or sat along the wall at an early morning training session in June 2010 in Detroit, Michigan. It was the second day of the second U.S. Social Forum (USSF) that drew over 15,000 people to share strategies for advancing human rights and social justice. Hosted by Astraea and grantee partner Transgender, Gender-Variant and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), the session outlined how U.S. activists could use the Yogyakarta Principles, which spell out how international human rights protections apply to sexual orientation and gender identity.
TGIJP is the nation's only organization dedicated to challenging and ending human rights abuses—including rape, discrimination and medical neglect—against transgender, gender variant/genderqueer and intersex people in prison. TGIJP organizers testified before the United Nations Committee on Racial and Ethnic Discrimination in 2008 about these violations, and saw an opportunity to share the Yogyakarta tools with U.S. activists attending the USSF.
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| Just released: An Activist's Guide to the Yogyakarta Principles. Click the image above to download the PDF. |
After an overview of the Yogyakarta Principles presented by Astraea staff member Namita Chad, TGIJP organizers used their own life stories as formerly incarcerated transgender people of color to demonstrate how each principle could be applied to improve U.S. conditions. Melenie Elekene spoke about Principle 26: The Right to Participate in Cultural Life as a mahu Hawaiian woman, and how both the colonization of Hawaii and transphobia restricted her rights. Grace Lawrence spoke about Principle 23: The Right to seek Asylum and Principle 9: The Right to Treatment with Humanity while in Detention. She explained how she immigrated to the U.S. when her life was threatened by transphobic violence and how she lived in immigrant detention for five years before her asylum was granted. Miss Major spoke of the difficulty of finding legal employment as a trans woman of color, and how she and her sisters are profiled as sex workers even if they do not engage in sex work, referencing Principle 12: The Right to Work and Principle 15: The Right to Adequate Housing.
By applying the international principles to lived experience in the U.S., the workshop brought human rights home. As training session participants moved around the room, stopping before each principle posted along the wall and tying each to an experience in the U.S., they began to build a case for U.S. activists to use international human rights mechanisms to support gender, racial and economic justice.
