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Fellows' Collective Critiques of the 2017 Appeal for Human Rights

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2017 JOHN LEWIS FELLOWS’ GROUP CRITIQUES OF THE NEW APPEAL FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

GROUP PROJECT PROMPT:

Six (6) groups of five (5) fellows will write a preamble consisting of a paragraph on restorative justice. en the 5 groups will select (and/or edit) 2 of the 5 preambles to introduce Part 2 of the group project. The preamble will provide a definition and description of the concept of restorative justice, and, in doing so, it will introduce the perspective and approach that restorative justice provides to addressing contemporary challenges and advancing a human rights agenda in Atlanta 2017. The preamble should be 200 words. The groups will be the same groups that produced responses to the 1960’s Appeal for Human Rights, during one of our reflection circle exercises.

Select one demand from the New Appeal for Human Rights 2017 and propose a restorative justice approach to achieving or advancing the goal described in the demand. The proposal and supporting analysis should be no longer than one (1) page.

ANTI-DISCRIMINATION: A RESTORATIVE JUSTICE APPROACH

Beau, Ian, Priya, Sabiha and Trey

Restorative justice is a cyclical form of community healing. Central to the process is that the determination of the role played by the party which has inflicted harm centers the needs of the party which has been harmed. To facilitate, a mediator will hear the sides of both parties and determine where and by whom harm has been dealt. When centered as part of Restorative Justice those who have been harmed identify how and to what extent they have been wronged and what rectification looks like; Restorative Justice also calls on the party that has inflicted harm to acknowledge the harm they have caused. Finally, the mediator ensures that remedies to harm are distributed accordingly. If this process is to be applied in Atlanta, it must center those harmed within the city because to deny them a role in the process of their own healing is to deny them self-determination. Because the ongoing injustices in Atlanta are the continuation of past injustices, solutions to the city’s contemporary challenges will not be suficient or just until the city acknowledges its past harms and heals from them.

Discrimination does not occur in a vacuum. Addressing the harms caused by discrimination alone will not solve the systemic injustices that exist in the education, health, criminal justice, housing, employment, and other societal systems. Each of these systems contains injustices that are unique to the particulars of that system that cannot be resolved by addressing discrimination. However, discrimination exists outside of specific societal systems; it functions in a manner that pervades society. As such, a restorative justice approach specifically focused on the general issue of discrimination is important because it gives space for the comprehensive address of these instances, independent of the role of discrimination in specific social and governmental contexts. Finally, it is crucial to address discrimination because only through doing so can people receive recognition for the injustices they have faced and the harm they have endured as a result of their identities.

To achieve non-discrimination, the third party mediator must follow certain rules when defining which group has harmed and has been harmed. First, the mediator must determine whether, in the instance in question, either individual or community discrimination has taken place. We acknowledge that the categories of individual and community discrimination are not mutually exclusive and leave room within our approach to address both forms within a specific instance.

To determine if community discrimination has taken place, the mediator will determine if a group with a shared identity consistently faces different outcomes from a group with a different identity, where the two identities lie on the same axis of identity. For example, the mediator could review historical information and conclude that there is discrimination if they find that there is a pattern of disparate outcomes between the two groups. For two groups to lie on the same axis of identity is for both to be defined in similar terms and to be mutually exclusive with each other. For example, people who live in Buckhead and Midtown are two groups that lie on the same axis, but people who live in Buckhead and Istanbul are not, nor are people who live in Buckhead and Latinx people.

To determine if individual discrimination has taken place, the mediator will determine if a person has been treated a certain way based on the perception that they belong to a certain identity. For example, the mediator could review the prescriptions given to two patients with similar symptoms but who belong to different perceived identity groups. If the mediator found that one received lower quality prescriptions, this would constitute individual discrimination.

Once the mediator determines that discrimination has occurred, they will then give the harmed a platform to articulate what that individual or community identifies as appropriate redress for the grievance. The mediator will review the harmed party’s recommendations and enact a just response.

VOTING: A RESTORATIVE JUSTICE APPROACH

Jaz, Adam, Esra, Arlette and Mairi

We, as people of the global majority, as people that are complicit in this unequal system, and as people dedicated to social justice have chosen to form a coalition to acknowledge current and past atrocities. In this acknowledgment, we propose a framework for solutions to reconstruct our society as it exists in 2017 Atlanta and elsewhere. By recognizing our responsibility to and for one another, we adamantly believe that the lasting and, in many cases, worsening violence, discrimination, and disparities in the areas of education, voting, housing, health care, law enforcement, religious freedoms, and workers rights represent not merely a lack of funding or political will, but rather an approach to justice that is based on historical distortions and systematic exploitation. We affirm restorative justice as a means towards transformative justice that starts with aiding and educating the community, including both perpetrators and survivors, in order to radically alter the system. There is no singular way to enact restorative justice, but it is dependent upon the following principles and values: truth-telling, empowerment, protection of human dignity, validation, and revitalization. Acting on these principles, we as a community must now commit to a collective process with aims toward healing and liberation for all.

As a coalition dedicated to restorative justice, we cannot proceed without first acknowledging the history of voter disenfranchisement in Atlanta and throughout the United States. During the Jim Crow era, African Americans were systematically obstructed from voting through the use of tactics like poll taxes, grandfather and good character clauses, literacy tests, and white primaries. Each of these seemingly harmless voter requirements intentionally barred black people from voting. As a result of these racist voting restrictions, black people were unable to vote for representatives that made decisions impacting their lives. Though the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was created to put an end to these policies, the truth is that discriminatory voter regulations continue to be enacted nationwide. Between the recent Shelby v. Holder (2013) decision and gerrymandering, black and brown people continue to face struggles in the voting process.

The purpose of restorative justice in this specific area is to not only to better understand and acknowledge the injustices of past and current discriminatory voter policies, but also to bring more people into the democratic process and ensure an equal vote for all.

Within the municipal context of Atlanta, the first step towards restorative justice would be to elevate and legitimize the voices of those who have endured past injustices. In order to do so, we ask the new administration and City Council to engage in a year-long process consisting of town hall meetings and focus groups that seek to better understand the systematic and social barriers that result in disenfranchisement and disparities in voter turnout among individuals from distinct racial, ethnic, and geographic communities. The stories revealed through this process should be circulated widely in partnership with local media outlets. Following this process, we ask the new administration and the City Council to formulate a campaign focused on increasing voter participation among groups that have been historically excluded from elections and to increase ways that all citizens, including youth, can participate in the democratic process more broadly.

It comes as no surprise that the oppressive legislative tactics utilized in the post-emancipation and contemporarily eras have significantly reduced the number of poor and marginalized communities that are able to participate in our elections. While the extensive community engagement process outlined in the preceding paragraph should put those who have been affected by such injustices at the center of solutions, we believe the following proposals present the bare minimum actions that must be undertaken by the new administration.

  1. The number of locations at which individuals can vote must be increased, with special attention paid to neighborhoods without access to public transportation.
  2. Early voting should be open seven days per week for at least three weeks prior to election day.
  3. Community-based organizations such as churches, homeless shelters, colleges, and recreational centers should have the opportunity to schedule appointments at local polling stations during which they can bring their members to cast votes. This is especially important within communities composed of individuals who have been historically underrepresented in elections.
  4. A local Voting Rights Commission should be established that considers how state and federal laws may result in disenfranchisement and ensures the accessibility of elections to all in the City of Atlanta.

WORKERS’ RIGHTS AND JOBS

Roberto, Ehlimana, Rukshar, Konstantine and Alma

We, the change agents, coming from different backgrounds are determined to protect the human rights of all peoples and want to ensure their continuity in the future. As aspiring leaders, we wish to follow the legacy set by Dr. Roslyn Pope, the author of the first Appeal for Human Rights, and the many civil rights leaders of the 1960s.

Looking back at history, we are appalled at the severity of the state’s discrimination and the blatant hypocrisy with which inequality was perpetuated. Equally, we laud the brave generations of civil and human rights fighters for their sacrifice in sweat and blood. While many advances were made in the demands addressed by the 1960 appeal, they continue to plague our society. To list a few concerns, restrictions in voting continue to grow, education and healthcare are increasingly inaccessible, and segregation continues to grow through gentrification.

We can begin to repair the harm done by acknowledging the historical and present injustices. Furthermore, the process of planning solutions and engaging in action must start by encouraging advocates and allies to engage with the community and understand their needs. Finally, through educating future generations, we ensure the continuity of the journey toward repairing injustices.

Firstly, we believe that the discrimination on any grounds from accessing a job is one of the most fundamental human rights violations. Still, it is not only necessary to point out and decry out right discrimination. We must also closely examine the causes for which many people of different races, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender and economic status do not reach high levels of employment. We have witnessed job discrimination. Namely Georgia is one of 28 states that have no laws protecting people from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. is leads to social inequality as well as a loss to employers from what diverse individuals can bring.

Apart from lack of access to jobs, many employment opportunities and remuneration in today’s society rely on a truly exploitative model. While organizations should o er equal opportunities, development and training to their employees regardless their identities, unfortunately this is not the case. In addition, lack of access to proper education as well as proper housing and transportation heavily limits the ability of people of lower incomes, which oftentimes includes people of color due to past structural racism, from accessing jobs that would allow them and their families to escape the vicious cycle of poverty. Among others, a huge issue on the worker’s right in contemporary markets is the minimum wage and pay gaps that exist between people. Service workers are not paid a wage that would allow them to live above the poverty line established by the federal government, which is deemed an inadequate indicator of poverty by many.

To ameliorate the current conditions, we wish to consider a few solutions engaging and connecting government, independent organizations, and workers. However, in order to move forward we need to empower people across the state and country to organize themselves and demand strong anti-discrimination laws that protect against discrimination on any grounds and ensure that all people are paid equally for equal work.

Furthermore, we believe that creating government commissions charged with following and preventing discrimination in the workplace would create some level of accountability. Still, these institutions would need to work with independent organizations to empower and encourage workers to point out any instances of discrimination. Thirdly, we demand the creation and fostering of partnerships between government entities, labor unions, and community organizations in order to ensure safe working conditions, fair wages, equal pay and remuneration.

Finally, we suggest that the government, labor unions, and non-governmental organizations encourage employers to actively hire more women, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities and others with marginalized identities. It is time to include, embrace diversity and take advantage of the positive outcomes that it can bring to society.

As articulated in “A New Appeal for Human Rights,” undocumented students stand at the crux of our educational system’s discriminatory policies. Georgia Board of Regents’ Policies 4.1.6 and 4.3.4 which prevent undocumented students from attending public institutions of higher learning exemplify an aggressive denial of these students’ humanity. We propose a restorative justice approach to addressing this harm. Said approach should account not only for the undocumented students forced to pay out-of-state tuition and denied financial aid, but also include students rejected from Georgia state schools based on legal status and the commensurate personal and economic losses that are likely to result from their exclusion from quality education.

A restorative justice approach to the harm against undocumented students should include:

  1. A forum or public commission to hear undocumented students’ stories of exclusion.
  2. Government-funded research to assess how many undocumented students were unfairly denied, overcharged, or otherwise pushed out of Georgia’s public colleges and universities.
  3. The creation of a committee and report through which undocumented students publicly express their losses and articulate desired restitutions from the state.
  4. The abolishment of Policies 4.1.6, 4.3.4, and HB 37, as well as legislation that establishes state schools as ‘sanctuary campuses.’ In addition, we propose the adoption of a policy proposed by the undocumented community to establish their equal participation in higher education.
  5. Based on information from research and student testimonies, the state must issue scholarships or vouchers to undocumented students who were denied admission.

We applaud the New Appeal for Human Rights for demanding access to higher education for undocumented students; the aforementioned actions will be important steps in restoring justice to the undocumented community. However, we believe that the appeal’s critique of education could be broader and address the discrimination faced by other groups when pursuing an education, including:

  1. The unequal material and working conditions in Georgia’s K-12 schools, leading to poorer educational outcomes for students from low-income zones.
  2. The disproportionate disciplining of black students in the form of suspensions, expulsions and even corporal punishment, which contributes to an early sense of criminalization of black people.
  3. The queer-exclusionary climate of many of Georgia’s educational institutions, exemplified by a lack of gender- neutral bathrooms and housing, a lack of representation of queer people’s historical contributions in the K-12 curriculum, and nonexistent antidiscrimination legislation that would protect queer teachers, staff and administrators.

Recognizing a larger spectrum of marginalized students, our restorative justice framework begins by acknowledging discriminatory educational policies against harmed communities. In addition to government-sponsored research documenting the number of students denied or pushed out of higher education through discriminatory measures, we also believe that victims should have access to information and power channels that allows them to safeguard their own rights. is may include workshops, community forums, and spaces for testimony that empowers students to identify oppression within their educational system and propose policy changes. As acknowledgment and empowerment alone are insuficient to forge equity in the educational system, we propose introducing possible monetary compensation or scholarships for marginalized students when cases of school-administered discrimination resulted in loss of higher educational opportunities, expulsion from K-12 schools, incarceration, and emotional/psychological trauma. While we recognize the complexities involved in this complex task, our approach upholds the rights of impacted communities to define the outcomes and nuances of their proposed educational reforms.

A RESTORATIVE JUSTICE APPROACH TO THE EDUCATION DEMAND IN “A NEW APPEAL FOR HUMAN RIGHTS”

Hope, Simone, Malgosia, Pedro and Sara

The concept of restorative justice is fundamental to advancing human rights. Too often, justice has been defined in ways that (i) emphasize punishment of o enders rather than restitution of victims (ii) de-center victims during the justice process, (iii) fail to address the root causes of violences and thus perpetuate a cycle of violence (iv) disregard the importance of the community in collectively addressing the harm.

By contrast, restorative justice is a community-based model that demands the participation of the victim(s), offender(s), and community in a collective healing process that ultimately aims to reconfigure society to uphold dignity. This process begins by ensuring safety for endangered communities, confronting both direct and structural violence.

Through restorative justice, victims should have access to information channels and mechanisms to hold perpetrators accountable. Both perpetrators and harmed communities engage in public truth-telling, forging accurate histories that center oppressed narratives and platforms for change. Thus, it seeks to acknowledge the perpetrators’ inflicted harm and empower oppressed communities to enjoy the full opportunities of an equitable future.

Restorative justice requires a shift from white supremacist narratives, frameworks, and policies toward social systems that uphold the common humanity and dignity of all people in the United States.

As articulated in “A New Appeal for Human Rights,” undocumented students stand at the crux of our educational system’s discriminatory policies. Georgia Board of Regents’ Policies 4.1.6 and 4.3.4 which prevent undocumented students from attending public institutions of higher learning exemplify an aggressive denial of these students’ humanity. We propose a restorative justice approach to addressing this harm. Said approach should account not only for the undocumented students forced to pay out-of-state tuition and denied financial aid, but also include students rejected from Georgia state schools based on legal status and the commensurate personal and economic losses that are likely to result from their exclusion from quality education.

A restorative justice approach to the harm against undocumented students should include:

  1. A forum or public commission to hear undocumented students’ stories of exclusion.
  2. Government-funded research to assess how many undocumented students were unfairly denied, overcharged, or otherwise pushed out of Georgia’s public colleges and universities.
  3. The creation of a committee and report through which undocumented students publicly express their losses and articulate desired restitutions from the state.
  4. The abolishment of Policies 4.1.6, 4.3.4, and HB 37, as well as legislation that establishes state schools as ‘sanctuary campuses.’ In addition, we propose the adoption of a policy proposed by the undocumented community to establish their equal participation in higher education.
  5. Based on information from research and student testimonies, the state must issue scholarships or vouchers to undocumented students who were denied admission.

We applaud the New Appeal for Human Rights for demanding access to higher education for undocumented students; the aforementioned actions will be important steps in restoring justice to the undocumented community. However, we believe that the appeal’s critique of education could be broader and address the discrimination faced by other groups when pursuing an education, including:

  1. The unequal material and working conditions in Georgia’s K-12 schools, leading to poorer educational outcomes for students from low-income zones.
  2. The disproportionate disciplining of black students in the form of suspensions, expulsions and even corporal punishment, which contributes to an early sense of criminalization of black people.
  3. The queer-exclusionary climate of many of Georgia’s educational institutions, exemplified by a lack of gender- neutral bathrooms and housing, a lack of representation of queer people’s historical contributions in the K-12 curriculum, and nonexistent antidiscrimination legislation that would protect queer teachers, staff and administrators.

Recognizing a larger spectrum of marginalized students, our restorative justice framework begins by acknowledging discriminatory educational policies against harmed communities. In addition to government-sponsored research documenting the number of students denied or pushed out of higher education through discriminatory measures, we also believe that victims should have access to information and power channels that allows them to safeguard their own rights. This may include workshops, community forums, and spaces for testimony that empowers students to identify oppression within their educational system and propose policy changes. As acknowledgment and empowerment alone are insufficient to forge equity in the educational system, we propose introducing possible monetary compensation or scholarships for marginalized students when cases of school-administered discrimination resulted in loss of higher educational opportunities, expulsion from K-12 schools, incarceration, and emotional/psychological trauma. While we recognize the complexities involved in this complex task, our approach upholds the rights of impacted communities to define the outcomes and nuances of their proposed educational reforms.

APPEAL FOR HEALTH CARE

Seung Hyun Chung, Lila, Alex, Eliza and Jordanos

We, the 2017 John Lewis Fellows, with the power and strength of leaders who came before us, demand an immediate transformation of our society. We will no longer tolerate a fundamentally inhuman system sustained by discrimination. We will advance stories that have been subverted or silenced and will not rest until the oppressive narratives used to mask those unequal realities are rewritten.

Rather than being complicit with the status quo, we choose to fully recognize the dignity of the disempowered and acknowledge the ongoing harm inflicted upon them. Our envisioned society provides access to fundamental resources for all to thrive and frames justice as fueled by actions rather than words. The justice we aspire to is not merely retributive, but transformative.

Our society establishes laws which, rather than maintain order, allow people whose autonomy was under threat to come to the forefront of society and participate in co-constructing a world where everyone flourishes. We want a peace achieved by truthful discourse. We envision reality in which all are approached with humanity and love and consequently, every person constitutes the norm.

Today, in view of the current federal push to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the state of health insurance is in urgent need of action. Over 1.4 million Georgians lack health insurance, with only a fraction of individuals in the metro Atlanta area within access to health care providers and services. e current system of privatized hospitals and care regards patients first for their financial value and secondly for their human worth. Therefore, we must end the era of privatized health care and instead put into place a single-payer system under which the government, rather than private insurance companies, would pay for all necessary care nationally. We propose a paradigmatic shift in how healthcare is ensured and provided in Georgia and the United States, emphasizing a healthcare system built on the principles of restorative justice and human rights.

Firstly, we call for a single-payer healthcare system in which the state, financed by taxes, covers basic health-care costs for all residents regardless of income, occupation, or health status. e premium of an offered policy/health package is equal for each insured, regardless of his health, age or background. e government assures the quality of care through federal legal standards. Healthcare providers, health insurers and insured persons, will determine the implementation. is freedom ensures competition and market forces to incentivize high quality and efficiency. To ensure simplicity of administration, each doctor handles the insurance claim against the provincial insurer. There is no need for the person who accesses healthcare to be involved in billing and reclaim.

Secondly, physicians, caregivers, and healthcare administrators must be trained in the tenets of narrative medicine. Narrative medicine incorporates storytelling as a way to understand the structural, socio-cultural, and personal circumstances of a patient and their illness. Patients must be able to voice how their illness came to be and the type of care that they would feel most comfortable with. is approach is best carried out through culturally connected physicians and caregivers who can better understand the lives and challenges of their patients. To promote such medical personnel we support federally allocated funds dedicated to bolstering the number of people of color in the eld and narrative medicine training.

Thirdly, Georgia’s healthcare problems would be mitigated by reforms in health education. The lack of state standards in comprehensive sex education fosters health disparities throughout Georgia. According to the Center for Disease Control, Georgia ranks fourth in the nation for sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis and HIV and ninth for teenage pregnancies. School districts that implement abstinence-only curriculum deprive at-risk youth in high HIV areas resources and information to lead healthy lives. Georgia must mandate comprehensive sex education, with emphasis on contraception instead of abstinence.

Lastly, a holistic approach to preventative health care is needed above all else. This means improving access to healthy food, water, housing, and education especially in historically underserved areas. To monitor the effectiveness of development on the community’s’ overall health, an annual report would be produced out of each healthcare facility. The report would provide an overview of how the right to health-care is carried out throughout the country, giving basis to administering possible changes and constructively resolving any arising problems. Healthcare professionals providing services would therefore be prompted to comply with established, anti-discriminatory regulations.

No nation can stay healthy without equal and fundamental access to quality healthcare regardless of patient background. Our suggestions outline the initial advances needed to reach this goal.

THE INCLUSIVE HOUSING ACT

David, Zelma, Chandra, Emily, Darriel

Despite the undeniable progress of the Civil Rights Movement and other struggles for social justice, residents of Atlanta continue to be impacted by structural violence and the denial of their humanity. ere is an immeasurable continued practice of discrimination in Atlanta on the basis of race, social class, gender, sexuality, and various other axis which state leadership has relentlessly ignored, despite our failure to uphold our reputation as a “Welcoming City.”

We insist on the addressment of the systemic racism and inequalities that continue to be pervasive in our society. In order to restore justice to communities in our nation, we must acknowledge the legacy of inequity and its impact on present communities as well as its detrimental impact on future generations. Restorative justice requires us to acknowledge the ways subaltern groups are entangled in the system of mass incarceration, stripped of their right to an equitable education, health care, housing, and economic resources.

In order for Atlanta to address these inequities, we demand an organized and collective process in which the historical atrocities committed against marginalized communities are acknowledged and rectified through sincere and concrete social, economic, and political action aimed at increasing the accessibility of resources and the practice of inclusion.

The focus of this bill proposal is to address the undeniable housing needs of Atlanta’s citizens, residents, and vulnerable populations including the homeless. e Transformation Alliance found that 95 percent of newly-constructed apartments since 2012 have been luxury apartments. Within this bill, affordable housing will be de ned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s guidelines, which states that affordable housing should be no more than 30 percent of a household’s yearly income.

Affordable Housing:

In an effort to increase affordable housing, 25% of new housing units will be allocated for low-income section 8 voucher residents. This bill also encourages community members to have equal contributions to the decision making process with regard to community development through organized meetings and invitations to conferences in the community. Sustainability will be at the forefront of new housing development as developers are required to create secure an adequate living units. As a part of the community land trust grant, the three highest income brackets as well as corporations residing in Atlanta such as Delta, Coca Cola, and Chick-Fil-A will be required to pay an increased tax that will be attributed to the affordable housing fund.

Tenants Rights:

Currently, landlords can send their tenants a late notice as early as two days after a late payment and can legally seek a court notice for eviction within ten days. Instead, tenants will be giving a minimum of three late payments before a landlord can proceed with eviction. Additionally landlords must wait a minimum of 14 days before pursuing a court ordered eviction notice for a tenant. Landlords are prohibited from discriminating against a tenant on the basis of race, ethnicity, etc. There will be a system in place to deal with complaints of discrimination in order to resolve the issue. If the issue is not resolved through third party mediation legal action will be pursued. Landlords are prohibited from discriminating against residents with criminal records or Section 8 voucher programs. Finally, rent increases will be limited to 50% of the rate of inflation defined by the Consumer Price Index to ensure tenants are not paying rent beyond their means.

Homelessness:

In Atlanta, statistics show that homeless people are 12 times more likely to be arrested than those with permanent housing. In order to decrease the amount of homeless individuals sleeping in public spaces, we propose an increase in state funded shelters and halfway homes offering job training and mental health services. Furthermore, research done by Lost-n-Found Youth discovered that 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQIA+. This organization helps queer youth transition into more permanent housing by providing mental health evaluations and counseling, referrals to educational resources, and job interview training. This bill will expand the work done by this organization through corporate donations, grants, and mandatory taxes would support the most vulnerable members of Atlanta’s population.