Right to Vote

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was created to prioritize women’s equal human rights and to eradicate discrimination directed specifically at women and girls. It protects women’s reproductive rights and declares that the role of women in procreation may not be a basis for discrimination. Article 12 says women have a human right to healthcare free from discrimination and requires that women have equal access to healthcare services, including those related to family planning. Article 16 states that women have equal rights  in deciding “freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children.” This includes having access to information, education, and healthcare services that allow them to exercise this freedom. A vote for human rights will:

• Support laws that protect healthcare privacy and provide legal protections to abortion providers, clinics, and patients. This includes adopting interstate shield laws that protect a person’s right to seek an abortion outside of their state of residence and the rights of medical personnel to provide that care.
• Oppose all legislation that discriminates on the basis of sex, gender, and gender identity. According to the United Nations, everyone - including women and girls - have the right to make decisions about their own bodies, including in matters related to reproductive health, which is central to the rights to equality, privacy, and physical and psychological integrity. 

All humans are born free and equal; this is the pillar on which human rights rests. Every core human rights treaty contains a provision guaranteeing that the rights it protects apply to all human beings equally without distinction of any kind (see Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). The UN explicitly notes that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex people are entitled to the same protection, respect, and fulfillment of their human rights as everyone else. These protections include security of person and privacy, equality before the law, and the right to freedom of expression, among others.

LGBTQ+ people face widespread discrimination and high levels of violence worldwide. According to FBI data, 19% (nearly one in five) of reported hate crimes in the United States are motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ bias. Anti-trans crimes have been rising at a dramatic rate - almost 400 transgender and gender nonconforming people have been killed by fatal violence since 2013 , with a little under a quarter (96) of those murders occurring since 2022. In 2026, 830 anti-trans bills have been introduced into state and federal legislatures, with 62 of them having passed so far, further fueling discrimination and the risk of violence.. A vote for human rights will:

• Support comprehensive nondiscrimination legislation at the local, state, and federal level that is inclusive of sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity. Current federal law does not explicitly include protections on the basis of these characteristics, which is a flaw that leaves LGBTQ+ communities disproportionately vulnerable to discrimination.
• Protect transgender people against legislative attacks that aim to restrict LGBTQIA+ rights and support policies that affirm the free expression of their identity including the ability to obtain legal identification,  access gender neutral bathroom facilities or those that match their gender identity, and access affordable, respectful healthcare services that include gender affirming care.

Every person has a right to life, liberty, and security, as well as the right to seek asylum across borders should they be persecuted in their home country. People flee their countries and seek safety across borders for many reasons - war, political or religious persecution, extreme violence, poverty, and environmental disaster, among others. Human rights violations are a major cause of the movement of people across borders; however, people fleeing their homes  are also disproportionately vulnerable to human rights violations because of their displaced status. The international community has taken steps to collectively defend and protect their rights. The right to seek asylum is protected by Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. 

Unfortunately, growing anti-immigration sentiment in the United States and around the world has exacerbated an ever-worsening global refugee and migration crisis, normalizing harsh and cruel immigration policies that violate the most basic principles of human dignity and international legal obligations. Refugee and asylum restrictions, long backlogs, and detention and child separation policies undermine U.S. compliance with international human rights standards and cause considerable, and often irreversible, harm to vulnerable people. A vote for human rights will: 

• Improve immigration pathways to be more expedient and accessible. People seeking asylum in the U.S. face multi-year delays as they await asylum hearings,  which is extraordinarily long considering that those seeking asylum are fleeing from violence and persecution, often fearing for their lives and their family’s lives. 
• Protect the stability of settled refugees. Limiting reverification programs that subject lawfully resettled refugees to recurring scrutiny and undermine their long-term legal security. 

There are more than 1 billion people with disabilities around the world who have the right to equal treatment and participation in public life regardless of ability level - physical, cognitive, sensory or otherwise. This also means that governments are required to provide accommodations that allow differently-abled people to equitably access the same opportunities as others. The Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD) “promotes, protects, and ensures the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.” 

The UNCRPD describes the principle of nondiscrimination entitled to those that are differently-abled, as well as the responsibility of states to raise awareness and combat stereotypes. Policy makers need to hear directly from people with disabilities about how to create policy that accommodates their needs and to write legislation with appropriate and empowering language. Full and inclusive participation means “nothing about us, without us!” A vote for human rights will:

• Counter ableism in the policy making process and embed the perspectives of those with disabilities in legislation.
• Improve social programs so that they are easier to navigate by people with disabilities. Gaining access to disability benefits typically involves extensive amounts of paperwork and confusing processes, which can act as barriers to accessing necessary assistance. For people with cognitive disabilities, social programs can be even more inaccessible.

Under International Human Rights frameworks, religious freedom is established as a fundamental human right which includes both freedom to exercise one’s religion, and protection against forced religious observance. The U.S. is home to over 370 religious bodies, with new faith groups continuously forming and expanding over the years. However, recent FBI hate crime statistics reveal that over 20% of single-bias reported hate crimes in the United States are motivated by religious bias, with Jewish, Muslim and Sikh communities experiencing disproportionate levels of harassment. These continuous biases undermine the rights of millions of Americans, and often result in communities having to practice their faith in fear of violence, discrimination, or stigmatization. 

While international standards guarantee protections for religious expression, they also safeguard an individual's right to not practice any faith or be subject to government religious coercion. As a result, protecting religious liberty requires ensuring that government entities neither hinder private religious practice nor impose religious doctrine onto public institutions or through legislation. A vote for human rights will:

• Enforce protections against religious discrimination. This means actively prosecuting faith-based hate crimes and ensuring fair religious accommodations in the workplace and educational institutions. 
• Uphold the separation of church and state under the Establishment Clause. Policies should prevent government entities from enforcing any religion, ensure that public schools remain neutral and inclusive for children of all backgrounds, and prevent public funds from favoring or discriminating against any religion.

Everyone has the right to an education, including the right to an education that furthers the advancement of human rights, advocates for a free society in which everyone can participate, promotes understanding, and nurtures friendship and tolerance amongst all. This right is outlined and protected by Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Yet in the United States, book bans have increased for decades. 

In 1998, Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland removed Maya Angelou’s memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings from the required ninth-grade English curriculum following complaints from parents who objected to the book's depictions of childhood sexual abuse, labeling the content inappropriate and offensive. The removal sparked widespread controversy, leading to student protests, public debates, and heavy criticism over censorship. In response to the backlash, the school board ultimately voted to reinstate the memoir to the classroom, though they added a policy allowing parents to request alternative reading assignments for their children if they objected to the material.

Link this video about I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings here 

A vote for human rights will:

• Oppose efforts to restrict books and curriculum that include empirically grounded discussions of race, history, sexual orientation, and gender identity. This includes the adoption of laws that outlaw book banning.
• Advocate for federal and state legislation that guarantees equitable access to educational resources. This includes securing funding for public schools and libraries in historically under-resourced communities.

Human rights are universally held but unequally protected by governments. When governments fail to safeguard human rights, people have the right to peacefully assemble to demand that protection. The right to peaceful protest is protected by Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which declares that  “everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.” Protest rights are closely connected to other protected rights like freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom of opinion and expression; and prohibitions on ill-treatment or punishment or arbitrary arrest. 

As public outrage and protests against federal immigration operations erupted across the country in early 2026, government agencies and local police responded by restricting rights including surveillance operations, wrongful arrests and legal retribution, and aggressive crowd-control tactics such as the use of chemical agents and excessive force.  Image credit

A vote for human rights will: 

• Safeguard the right to peaceful assembly, free expression, and the right to protest, including the protection of protesters from excessive use of force by law enforcement. The use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and water cannons can inflame tensions and turn otherwise peaceful movements violent, endangering both civilians and law enforcement, while undermining the freedom of opinion and expression.
• Support state accountability and legal protections for demonstrators. This includes oversight mechanisms to investigate law enforcement violations of constitutional rights during public demonstrations, and the creation of clear legal protections for individuals subjected to state-sanctioned violence or wrongful detention while exercising their rights.

There are an estimated 6 billion internet users around the world. Much like in physical spaces, users have the fundamental right to privacy, free expression, and self-determination in the digital world. This means that governments and institutions are required to safeguard online spaces so that individuals can access information and participate in these spaces without fear of exploitation or surveillance. Studies by the Pew Research Center show that nearly 80% of American adults are concerned and feel they have little to no control over how companies collect, share, and monetize their personal information. This lack of digital safety extends beyond the loss of personal data, and often escalates into online violence, with 41% of adults and nearly 60% of young people experiencing online violence and harassment in the U.S.

In 2024, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution on artificial intelligence, affirming that “the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, including throughout the life cycle of artificial intelligence systems,” and ensuring the preservation of human dignity in an increasingly digital world. This includes freedom from technology-facilitated violence, protection against non-consensual exploitation, transparent and accountable algorithms, and universal digital safety. A vote for human rights will: 

• End surveillance practices and enforce robust data privacy. Large tech companies continuously track, exploit, and sell personal user data without clear, informed consent. Robust legislation will ban invasive tracking, limit corporate data retention, and grant individuals full control and ownership over their personal information.
• Combat technology-facilitated violence and online harassment. Digital platforms often allow online abuse such as harassment campaigns, doxxing, non-consensual imagery, hate speeches, and AI-generated deepfakes. Policies should close legal loopholes, hold platforms accountable, and establish removal mechanisms for abusive content.

Link video: #MyVoiveMyFuture digital rights campaign video 

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The struggle against racism is a human rights struggle. Freedom from discrimination of all kinds is enshrined in core human rights instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. In 1966, the United States ratified the International Covenant on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) which guarantees the right to live free from racial discrimination and requires the U.S. to eliminate all forms of discrimination including systemic racism. 

Police violence against African Americans, people of African descent, and people of color in the United States is at an alarming level. Prompted by the extrajudicial killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers and the ongoing global movement for racial justice, the UNOHCHR established the Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in the context of Law Enforcement (EMLER). Its purpose is to examine the root causes of systemic racism in law enforcement and human rights violations by law enforcement officials, and make recommendations for how domestic legal systems and policing can be made consistent with international human rights standards. Following a visit across multiple U.S. cities, including Minneapolis, EMLER published findings detailing disparities in policing, incarceration, and sentencing, urging state and federal lawmakers to enact clear standards and end discriminatory practices. A vote for human rights will: 

• Support a comprehensive legislative plan to advance racial justice including confronting and redressing past and persistent historical legacies of slavery, settler colonialism, segregation, lynching, and other forms of racially motivated violence.
• Advocate for accountability for violence perpetrated by police and other law enforcement by investigating police misconduct, ending qualified immunity, making it easier to prosecute offending officers, and permitting the recovery of damages in civil court for the violation of constitutional rights.

Promotion of and respect for human rights should be at the center of U.S. foreign policy. This means respecting the rights of non-citizens in our practices abroad, encouraging other governments to fulfill their human rights obligations, and punishing rights-violating governments for their human rights violations. It also means holding ourselves and our allies as accountable for human rights obligations as adversaries. The United States cannot condemn human rights violations in foreign adversaries while overlooking violations committed by partners. This includes ensuring that the U.S. does not participate in, fund, or facilitate human rights violations carried out by partner nations. Holding allies to the same standard of accountability as adversaries is essential to eliminating double standards and upholding international human rights law. A vote for human rights will:

• Comply with international human rights and international humanitarian law. This means upholding the laws of war, ensuring that the U.S. does not commit war crimes, is not complicit in serious abuses committed by allies, and conditioning military funding on human rights practices, the protection of civilians, and compliance with the laws of war.
• Pursue a strategy to identify, prevent, and respond to the risk of atrocities and mass violence consistent with the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act. Policies should also promote justice and accountability for international crimes including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. 

Everyone has an innate right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. Climate change poses a fundamental threat to the enjoyment of this right and the other human rights that it makes possible - life, health, water, and food, amongst others. 

Countries in the global South, indigenous peoples, people of color, and youth have led the charge that climate inaction violates basic human rights. They successfully petitioned their governments and the United Nations to recognize the threat to present and future life posed by destructive environmental policies. In July 2025, the International Court of Justice released an advisory opinion establishing that states have a legally binding duty under international law to protect against climate harm. In May 2026, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution A/80/L.65, officially endorsing the ICJ ruling and implementing it to hold nations accountable for climate inaction. The right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is recognized as a fundamental human right interdependent with all other internationally recognized rights. Governments should ensure a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment in order to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights. A vote for human rights will:

• Protect impoverished and marginalized communities against the effects of climate change. The negative effects of climate change disproportionately affect people living in poverty, those least equipped to protect themselves or adapt to its harsh effects. According to the Human Rights Council, governments should take additional measures to protect the rights of those who are most vulnerable to, or at a particular risk from, environmental harm. 
• Recognize a  constitutional duty or government obligation to address climate change and mitigate its effects. Recent legal precedents for this have occurred in Montana and Hawaii. Link this video about the Watershed Movement. 

In December 2025, the federal government began Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, an immigration enforcement action described by the Department of Homeland Security as its largest ever. In January 2026, the federal government launched Operation Paris, further targeting refugee communities in Minnesota. Federal agents dehumanized and targeted immigrant and refugee communities for abuse and the neighbors who sought to protect their rights. 

Operation Metro Surge was characterized by unlawful killings, racial profiling, unlawful detentions, excessive force, and abusive detention conditions. It also disrupted access to health care, education, work, and food. Minnesotans faced further abuses, including harassment, surveillance, violence, and arrests, when they collectively acted to protest, prevent, and stop these fundamental violations of their Constitutional and human rights. Like all law enforcement agencies, federal officials representing  the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)  must act lawfully, respect constitutional rights such as due process, avoid illegal practices such as racial profiling and use of excessive force, and respect human rights. The devastating impact on communities in Minnesota demonstrates the need for all federal agencies and police forces to align their practices with constitutional rights and human rights standards. A vote for human rights will:

• Implement human rights-centered training and operational standards. This means ensuring that all agents receive continuous training and standards centered around constitutional rights, bias-free policing, deescalation, and conflict resolution. Training should also establish clear prohibitions on excessive force, unlawful searches, and racial profiling.     
• Create mechanisms of accountability for federal agents. This includes requiring body cameras and identifiers for all agents, banning chemical and physical weapons against peaceful observers, and mandating independent investigations and prosecutions for unlawful behavior.