 Welcome to Cooper Union. This week we'll be focusing on the UN Universal Periodic Review, a country checkup, and we'll be focusing on the world reviewing America's human rights record. Today we're joined by two amazing advocates and activists who are organizing across the country to make sure that the review actually tells the truth and shares the perspective of the people on the ground and that voice is brought to Geneva. So far the U.S. was reviewed in 2010 for the first time and then again in 2014. So in this third UPR cycle, the people are organizing across the country to make sure the world learns exactly what's going on in our communities, in our cities, and all across the country. I'd like to first welcome Kerry McLean, who is the UPR coordinator for the U.S. Human Rights Network. And Kerry, could you tell us a little bit about why the UPR is important to the people in the United States? Sure. So the UPR is a process by which governments are reviewed. Their human rights record is reviewed by their peers. And it's an important part of all of the different mechanisms that the UN has by which countries can be held accountable for their human rights record. Advocates have a lot of different opportunities to get involved in the process. Really it's a five-year process that begins shortly after the country's last reviewed, leading up to, you know, now in about two weeks when the U.S. is going to be reviewed. There are opportunities to get involved by lobbying your own government, but also lobbying other governments to ask them to basically question your government during the review, right, and force them to answer certain questions and make recommendations to them for how they can improve their human rights record. So yes, as we were talking, we actually have a 13-day countdown until the third UPR of the United States. And exactly Kerry was describing the important phases of how you can participate. In a way, there's sort of five phases. There's the preparation phase where we draft the stakeholder reports that then really bring the perspective from the people highlighting the questions and recommendations we want to ask. Then there's also the interaction phase, which we're still in for the next two weeks where different working groups are sharing those recommendations and meeting with UN missions. And then in 13 days, exactly at 2.30 Geneva time, 8.30 in the morning in the East Coast, that review will take place on 9 November, and that'll be the consideration phase. And then after that, we'll have the adoption at the next Human Rights Council. And we talked about that briefly at the last session and the implementation, which is most important. Kerry, can you share with us some of the exciting working groups that are organizing on the ground and making sure that they hear at the global level what matters most? So, I mean, we know, Kerry, there's many working groups that the U.S. Human Rights Network is coordinating through the UPR Task Force. Could you maybe? There we go. Yes. Okay. So, the U.S. Human Rights Network, we've organized people into advocates into different issue area working groups and really covering a wide range of issues, so issues such as housing and water and sanitation, women's rights, like what needs to be talking about, the criminal legal system, LGBTQ rights, so a lot of different issues. And what's been really exciting over the past month or so is that the different working groups have been able to do briefing sessions with different missions to really educate them about the human rights issues in relation to their particular area. Exactly. So, Denise, you're heading a working group and you're also the head of the Women Lead Network. As coordinator for the Women's Rights Working Group, can you maybe share some of the exciting work that you're doing here in the U.S. and then some of the activities you're also doing in Geneva? Yeah, of course. I'm excited to be part of the conversation today. And just as a note, Women Lead Network is a collective, so formally we don't have a head, but I appreciate the call out to that community who really, our goal is to try to centralize women's experiences and different issues that are occurring around the world and also ensure that they're leaders in solving those problems. And Women Lead Network is a member of the U.S. Human Rights Network, and I serve in the role of coordinating and organizing the women's rights working group as part of the U.S. Human Rights Network. And so I just wanted to, if I might, take a moment and talk about the language of women before I talk a little bit about sort of the work that we've been doing. So when we, as Women Lead Network, but also as the women's rights working group, talk about women, we're really using that term very broadly. Like we are, the definition is for people who identify themselves as women. But also we centralize many issues that are impacting other folks who are menstruating or the folks who are birthing people. So we want to be, I just wanted to be clear about that when we talk about that. So it's been really exciting to be part of this community of advocates at the U.S. Human Rights Network and in particular looking at, you know, the issues for women on the ground in terms of the U.S.'s human rights record. And so I often like to remind folks that women's experiences are intersectional. And so what that means is that from a human rights perspective is that women's human rights experiences and other human rights violations overlap with women's experiences. And so for example, when we're seeing a global outcry around how to address systemic racial violence within the context of police systems, it reminds us that black and brown women are disproportionately incarcerated compared to their white peers. We've had some recent high-profile cases of sterilization, non-consensual sterilization for black and brown women in prisons in California and ICE detention centers, right? So we know that those are intersectional experiences. And there are a variety of other, of course, human rights issues that are occurring on the ground, voter suppression, you know, women are disproportionately impacted by voter suppression issues in particular, ID laws, right? That, for example, require trans folks and gender non-binary folks to match their gender. And, you know, ID laws that, you know, women who, 90% of women, when they marry or partner, change their names, right? So we can see that there are some clear overlapping issues. Go ahead. No, I think that's a great overview. And I remember one early morning, just a couple weeks ago, could you maybe share how then you bring the voice from the people on the ground, sharing all these challenges around all the intersectionality of the issues related to women's rights and share those at the UN? I think you were speaking at a European Union event one early morning. Well, that's the beauty of collective, right? So many of the women within Women Lead Network and other women who contributed to the work that we're doing at the Women's Rights Working Group have identified particular issues for them that are important. And so with the UPR coming up in just a few days, what do we decide, 13 days, we've really been focused on three particular issues. One is maternal health care. One is access to reproductive health care. And another is gender-based violence. And so what we've done is participated in the process with the Human Rights Network. We submitted a stakeholder report back in October of 2019 and have throughout this process been focused on doing the outreach. We've had the opportunity to connect with multiple countries to address some of these issues. Like, for example, maternal health care, right? The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of similarly wealthy countries. And pregnant people in the United States today are 50% more likely to die due to childbirth complications than they were even 30 years ago. And so these are the kinds of issues that we want to make sure are presented to the international community when they're considering what kinds of questions they'll be talking to the U.S. about. Thank you. And I know, Carrie, you were on a national call recently that focused on housing as a human right. And with the UPR, one of the most important things is the U.S. has such a dismal record in international ratifications, only ratifying three of the core nine and not recognizing children's rights, as well as even CDOT, Denise. Maybe you can share how it's important to bring up these economic, social, and cultural rights, such as right that education, health care, and housing and some of the results and recommendations that came out of that national panel focusing on housing as a human right. OK, it was actually an excellent call. So goodness, I guess there are two parts to your question. As far as what came out of that call, I think just generally the attendees felt that they felt really excited about the UPR process and they said that they want to use it in their work. They want to find ways to participate. And so I shared with them, for example, that at this stage for this particular UPR, they could do things such as, you know, write op-eds for their local papers, definitely watch the broadcast of the UPR and encourage people in their networks to watch the UPR. And they can watch it live on UNTV at the network. We're going to be live tweeting and we're going to share hashtags. So please definitely tune in, visit our website, UPR2020.org for more information about that. And just keep checking back every couple of days because we're continuously updating the website. And then, you know, even after the UPR, we're going to have other opportunities to get involved. We're going to be doing a debriefing at the network. So once again, check our website for information about that. And you can join us for the debrief. And there's actually, there's things that are happening after the UPR that, you know, opportunities again for advocates to get involved, such as trying to lobby the government to accept recommendations. If you're a part of an organization that has Ecosoc status, there are going to be opportunities for you to make certain comments. So, you know, there's still a lot that can, that's going to be happening and that you'll have the opportunity to participate in if you're interested. Like I said, visit UPR2020.org. And you'll see my contact there. I encourage you to reach out to me if you have any questions. And, you know, while Denise was talking, I realized I didn't even really go through just all the background that I wanted to share for people who might know nothing about the UPR and might be interested in the background of how it all came about and the process. So just I want to share a couple of things. The UN Human Rights Council was created in 2006. And there are 47 countries that make up the council. And it was at that time that the Universal Periodic Review was created. And like I said, it's a peer review. And that makes it a different mechanism from pretty much any other mechanism because, you know, it's actual governments reviewing the human rights record of other governments. All right? So it's pretty special in that regard. And as Josh mentioned, it has several stages and opportunities for civil society to get involved at each stage. There's the government's report and national consultations. Unfortunately, during this administration, there I think were perhaps maybe two consultations that I know of. So not much engagement with civil society. And, you know, it's a stark contrast with the previous administration, which did engage with civil society quite a bit. And then civil society, we have the opportunity to submit what we call stakeholder reports. So it's just basically writing a report about the human rights issues that are really important to you and to the groups that you work with. And then following that, there's the stage of lobbying. You know, you create an advocacy paper and you reach out to embassies and diplomatic missions. And you really try to push your issue because you want to make sure that these governments bring your issue up to the U.S. during the review because during the actual review session, no activists can speak, only other governments can speak to the U.S. And then, oh, one thing that is coming up next week. I believe it will be public. Josh, you can let me know. We do have a side event that's coming up. And Josh can talk some more about that. But I would encourage people to tune into that if it's possible, if it's public. And then, like I said, on the 9th, definitely join the webcast of the session on UNTV. Thank you so much, Carrie. And that really does summarize where we're at and where we've come from in this process. And she summarized so well that the current administration regarding consolidation, she was being generous. There's been very little genuine conversations and communication and even worse, considering what we've said and adding it to the report. The report was tardy at the most kind way. And when it was turned in, which is just recently, there's not a single mention of COVID in the report. So it's definitely true that the U.S. report leaves a lot to be desired. And that's why, as Denise shared, we're doing those sessions, bless you, with the missions in Geneva. And yes, next week, after the election on November 3rd, we know that many of us are very anxious about what could be happening. So we believe missions would still want to meet with directly impacted peoples in the United States. So we're working with Center for Constitutional Rights and the U.S. Human Rights Network. And we're planning a panel, a panel that covers sibling political rights and economic, social, and cultural rights in a creative fishbowl sort of scene where it's everyone interacting with one another and talking about what we care most. And then summarizing what are the core recommendations we're asking the government to make to the United States. So the review that Kerry's inviting us to all watch is three and a half hours. The exciting thing is whatever is said in that three and a half hours makes it into the final report. So if it gets mentioned, you were successful. We'll know how many women's rights mentions are done at the end of the three and a half hours and all the results of Denise's network and organizing and how everybody has worked together. So that will be quite exciting to be able to see that. And it's amazing that we'll be able to participate. And then it was shared that there are two more phases, the adoption phase. We've got to push this government before the Human Rights Council meeting in February, March to accept these recommendations. And then of course, it's the implementation of what we could do. And if we look at what's going on around the world and the actions of the United States, we definitely can be alarmed. And I think Denise, maybe you could share with us just recently, the United States was aligning with a lot of countries you wouldn't expect U.S. to be aligning with when it comes to women's rights. Can you tell us what happened around this Geneva Declaration and the most recent actions that's on the ground? I mean in Geneva. Yeah. So it is perhaps not surprising. And in fact, Kerry was very generous in explaining the engagement between grassroots and NGOs and the government, the U.S. government. And so while the U.S. government was not engaging with civil society, with NGOs and activists and networks and folks on the ground, what it was doing was organizing, even though in theory it's withdrawn its participation, it was organizing on the ground to intentionally block access for women to have access to health care protections, not just in the U.S., which we see that it's actively doing here, but also around the world. And so it was just announced last week that the U.S. had organized about 30 countries from around the world, the most conservative countries when it comes to women. Many of them on the 20 worst countries for women in the women, peace, and security list from Georgetown, some actively engaged in the depression of women led protest movements like in Belarus to create a declaration that talks about caring for and protecting women, but completely excludes any language related to abortion and prevents any language related to abortion at an international level from being included in that. And of course, this is in partnership with the Hyde Amendment that's considered the global gag rule, which already limits access to humanitarian aid and other types of aid if abortion services are mentioned. And I just want to add the importance and relevance of abortion services are that even if women don't get abortions, the evidence has shown us that in areas where abortion is limited in access, women's health centers are limited, and women's health deteriorates. So there's a direct connection, a direct relationship between limiting access to abortion, talking about it, and women's health and their outcomes. And so while they've been sort of on the sidelines, theoretically, they certainly have not been in the sidelines in addressing and trying to prevent women from having access to rights internationally. Yeah, it is alarming to see the U.S. on the list with the countries that are the most fundamentalists, and also where the women's rights are denied the most in calling for the meeting. I know I'll never forget a year ago at the UN General Assembly, the whole world was having a climate summit, and the United States wanted to organize a session on religious liberties, and even the Pope was at the climate summit. And it shows really in many ways all the interconnectedness of all the issues and how human rights are the indivisible and interdependent. And I think I also want to thank Kerry for joining us. We know there was just a hurricane that recently hit you, and maybe Kerry, you could talk about how many hurricanes you've seen so far this season, and a little bit about the climate crisis in that context, and how we link these issues all together. Oh, goodness. So, well, I can't, all I can tell you is that we're up to Z right now. Last night, we had hurricane data. And yeah, you know, Josh, we were talking about this earlier. It is all connected. We are certainly in the climate crisis. And we have an administration that simply doesn't care and is even trying to go backwards. This is a fight that we all have to take seriously. You know, we're going to the polls next week, but we're also going to try to hold the government accountable on the international stage. Perfect. And then that brings up the most recent current event, unfortunately, at the national level is just yesterday. New Supreme Court justice was nominated. Denise, could you maybe share the sentiment about that latest national action and maybe some of the steps that we're organizing around the country in response? Yeah. So again, I mean, I think that one of the really critical things to understand from the perspective of women's rights is that, especially over the last four years, there's been a very intentional trajectory to roll back women's rights as there has been an intentional trajectory to roll back the rights of many people who fought very hard to have access to those rights, including LGBTQ folks, including communities of color, etc. But the most recent, of course, is the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, what, six or seven days, I think, before the actual election. And so certainly there have been cases before the Supreme Court that have limited women's access to medical care, have limited women's access to abortion. But I think that the two major issues that are really going to be of concern for women with her appointment is, number one, we know it's very clear, it's been made clear that Roe v. Wade is going to be on the docket and not just Roe v. Wade, which really doesn't stand only for abortion access. It stands for the access for women to make decisions about their own bodies. But it's not just Roe v. Wade that's on the docket. It's also the ACA that's on the docket. And women are disproportionately concentrated in jobs that don't have employment benefits. And women's access to insurance skyrocketed under the ACA. And so if that's taken away, of course, that has an impact on women. And that, of course, leaves out any extensive conversation about her positions on things like gun control, which for domestic violence victims is put them in a precarious position, or her position on how to define gender for the purposes of Title IX, which excludes any trans folks or not gender non-binary folks. And so just in general, for gender justice and for women's rights, this confirmation is literally going to be hazardous to women's health. Thank you so much for bringing that. I know we only have roughly a minute, and we could definitely talk unfortunately about the human rights record for so much longer. We ask everyone to tune in on November 9th at 2.30 Geneva time, join the human rights network with the watch party and the Twitter storm. There's a lot we could share. We know the U.S. will lead off about their new Unable Rights Commission and how it really does. We should let you know, undermine the universal agenda, which was crafted in the 1940s and was then fortified with fundamental freedoms throughout these decades. So please do join and participate and we also discussed that we'll make that the theme of our November 10th session. That's one day after the Universal Periodic Review. We will focus and give a formal review here on Cooper Union. So I'd like to thank both of you for joining. Thank you so much, Denise and Kerry, for making time. And I know that brings us to a close. Thank you so much, Mahalo, and look forward to our next session. Thank you, Josh. Thank you.