Report on the US Human Right Network's (USHRN) 2011 National Human Rights Conference and Membership Meeting Historical

Background Since its launch in 2002, the US Human Rights Network (USHRN) has consistently held two interrelated national convening's to build the domestic human rights movement and give it programmatic direction. The two convening processes are: a) National Membership meetings to discuss the programmatic implementation of the Network and to make critical decisions pertaining to the development and execution of its strategic plan of action, and 2) Bi-Annual Training Conferences to expand the overall capacity of the domestic human rights movement by enhancing the overall knowledge and skill of the movement's advocates and provide a firm introduction and orientation to the human rights framework for new members of the Network. In addition, the Network has also consistently been a major contributor to the Southern Human Rights Organizers Conference (SHROC) and the Southern Human Rights Organizers Network (SHRON), which are held every other even year (December 2012 will be the next convening of SHROC, SHRON and the Southern Regional Membership Meeting in Charleston, SC). Since 2004, SHRON meetings have consistently served as a membership meeting vehicle for the Network. The 2011 National Human Rights Conference and Membership Meeting was the first time in the Network's relatively young development that both the Membership Meeting and Bi-Annual Training Conferences were combined. This experimental combination was intended to serve several purposes: 1. To more effectively utilize the limited resources of the Network during a time of financial crisis for the membership and society at large 2. To attract the deepest and broadest base of Network membership during a period of transition for the Network with the search for a new Executive Director and significant transition on the Board of Directors in 2012

Moving from Atlanta to Los Angeles The National Human Rights Conference and Membership Meeting were originally scheduled to be held in Atlanta, GA in December 2011. However, after the passage of HB 87, by the Georgia state legislature in April 2011, the Networks Coordinating Center decided to stand in solidarity with the immigrant communities of Georgia and declared that if the Governor signed the Bill into law it would boycott the state of Georgia and move the conference to another state (See: http://goo.gl/l3wRD) . HB 87 is an anti-immigrant bill that promotes racial profiling and violates the fundamental human rights immigrants. Following a wave of xenophobic reactions to the rapidly changing racial, ethnic, and religious demographics of the United States by politically conservative social movements throughout the South and Southwest, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed HB 87 into law in May 2011. After the Bill was signed into law, the Network Coordinating Center initiated an investigative process to determine a new site for the National Human Rights Conference and Membership Meeting. The basic criteria utilized to determine a new site included: 1. A state, county or city that was actively resisting xenophobic legislation and/or enforcement 2. A state where the Network had yet to hold a major training, convening, or conference 3. A state that reasonably favorable weather to aid with turnout We also prioritized choosing a state and/or region where we could do some considerable outreach to new social movement organizations to expand the base of the Network and the human rights movement in the United States. After two months of consideration, where we pursued venues in Texas, Louisiana, Washington, and North Carolina we decided to move the conference to California as it best met all of the above criteria. In deciding upon California, we then had to make a decision between the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. We decided upon Los Angeles due to its concentration of organizations focusing on immigrant rights and active resistance to the Secure Communities Program (or SCOMM) as a means of sustaining our commitment to immigrant rights and our solidarity with our members and allies in the state of Georgia.

Membership Meeting Overview The 2011 National Human Rights Conference and Membership Meeting was attended by over 150 members representing more than 60 member and allied organizations from the following states: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Hawaii, Vermont, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Alaska, Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts, South Carolina, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Georgia, Maryland, Wisconsin, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. During the Membership Meeting portion of the Conference held on Friday, December 9th a number of critical decisions were made pertaining to the strategic orientation and programmatic work of the Network in 2012 and 2013, particularly pertaining to the organization of the Regional Membership Meetings and the implementation of the International Mechanism Coordinating Committee (IMCC). During the Caucus and Working Group portion of the Membership Meeting, the following groups met and made various plans to conduct their work in 2012 and beyond: the Gender and Sexuality Working Group, Political Prisoner and State Repression Working Group, the Labor Working Group, and the reconstituted Housing Caucus. Several new working groups and/or caucuses also met and formed during the meeting, including: the new Afrodescendent and ESCR (Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) Working Groups. For more information on the proceedings and plans of these respective working groups and/or caucuses please contact info@ushrnetwork.org. During the Regional Meeting Planning Session representatives from the following regions met and made the following preliminary decisions:

Zone 1 which includes members from Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Nevada and Washington state decided to establish a regional listserv to facilitate greater communication amongst member organizations and to start building its regional membership infrastructure. Their plan involves a statewide gathering in California in the summer or fall of 2012 to consolidate a base of operations in the region and to provide additional support to the Network Coordinating Center to facilitate a Membership Meeting in the zone in 2013.

Zone 3 which includes members from North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia decided to introduce the conversation of a regional Membership Meeting within the Midwest Human Rights Coalition to produce greater synergy and suggested that a regional meeting could potentially be held in the Chicago in May 2012 as a precursor to the counter-NATO and G20 Summits being organized by several different social movements regionally and (inter)nationally. Zone 4 which includes members from Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma decided that it wanted to explore conducting its Regional Membership Meeting in the fall of 2012 with Oklahoma being the primary choice and Texas being a secondary consideration. Zone 5, which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida, will hold its Regional Membership Meeting in Charleston, South Carolina on Monday, December 10th through SHRON (the Southern Human Rights Organizing Network), which is the Southern expression of the Networks regional structure. Zone 6 which includes members from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and Washington, D.C. decided to establish a listserv to facilitate coordination and to explore collaboration with several allied social movement processes, such as the Social Forum, the Social Movement Engagement process of HuRAH (the Human Rights at Home Campaign), and the Peoples Movement Assembly process.

During the portion of the Membership Meeting dedicated to formally adopting the International Mechanism Coordinating Committee (IMCC) proposal there was a general consensus amongst the membership to approve the general strategic thrust of the proposal, but with the understanding that the following items would be thought through and incorporated into the initiative going forward: That a new name be adopted for the structure to make it more memorable That greater detail be established with regard to how the new structure would incorporate coordination with Special Rapporteurs, the ILO, and the Inter-American System

That the new structure serve as an advocate for U.S. government treaty compliance with the various Indigenous (Indian) Nations and/or Tribes that it has treaty obligations with.

A continuations committee was also established to address these considerations and further refine the structure. To join this committee, email Kali Akuno at kakuno@ushrnetwork.org. Overview of the Bi-Annual Conference and Training Sessions For a full listing of the programmatic content of the Bi-Annual and Training Session portion of the National Conference please see the conference program located at http://www.ushrnetwork.org/2011conferenceprogram. Video documentation of the plenary sessions and the keynote to the conference presented by ICERD committee member Jose Francisco Cali Tzay can be viewed at http://www.ushrnetwork.org/2011conference/videos. In addition to the plenaries and workshops, there were also several other critical activities with which the National Conference engaged. These included an educational film series Friday, December 9th and Saturday, December 10th and support for critical local actions against the Secure Communities Program (SCOMM), led by the Southern California Immigration Coalition (with various local and national partners) on Saturday, December 10th and a facility occupation against displacement, foreclosures and homelessness led by LA Community Action Network (LA CAN) that started on Friday, December 9th. A listing of the films we included in our series can be found here: http://www.ushrnetwork.org/2011conference/filmseries. One film that we featured on Friday, December 9th that was not originally on our program. The film,41st and Central, is a documentary made by Gregory Everett about the Los Angeles Chapter of the Black Panther Party for SelfDefense and its leader Alprentice Bunchy Carter. This was followed by a rich discussion with Gregory Everett about the legacy of struggle for human rights in Los Angeles and in the peoples and social movements of the 1960s and 70s and how they relate to the movements of today, such as the Occupy Movement. On Saturday, December 10th we featured the film Older than America by Native filmmaker and producer Georgina Lightning. Following the film Georgina Lightning engaged the membership in a discussion about the

ongoing dispossession of Indigenous peoples in North America, with a particular focus on cultural genocide through forced reeducation via the Boarding school institutions the US government mandated for Indigenous peoples in the 19th and 20th centuries. Assessment of the National Conference and Membership Meeting Through the critical efforts of the Coordinating Center staff, membership supporters, and volunteers, we were able to make the National Conference and Membership meeting a general success. Critical advances were made on all of the core goals for the National Conference and Membership Meeting, which included: 1. Recruiting new organizational and individual members to the Network 2. Creating the basic infrastructure for the 2012 and 2013 Regional Membership Meetings 3. Approving the general thrust of the International Mechanism Coordinating Committee (IMCC) proposal 4. Initiating a dialogue and preliminary process for engaging in the next strategic planning process for the Network However, the attainment of these successes was not without its challenges. Some of the principle challenges included: 1. The financial challenges being confronted by the membership played a critical factor in limiting overall turnout, particularly from member organizations from the East Coast and the Southeast which is where the greatest concentration of our membership is situated. 2. Subsidizing a considerable portion of the membership to either attend or be accommodated put a significant burden on the limited financial resources of the Network, resulting in the National Conference exceeding its projected budget. 3. Holding the Conference in a city with very limited public transportation and in a location far from many working class people of color communities limited access and participation. 4. Too much was crammed into a limited schedule to accommodate all the programmatic needs of the Network and its broad constituency which contributed to some workshops being sparsely attended and others being beyond capacity. 5. Not going deep enough into existing local and regional alliances to reach broader sectors and deeper portions of the community.

6. Holding the conference on Human Rights Day was disadvantageous because it forced us to compete with programmatic initiatives of member organizations throughout the country. Future Recommendations 1. Hold the Membership Meetings and Training Sessions separately, this will alleviate the problem of over-scheduling considerably. 2. Focus on hosting all major Network convenings in either community spaces or colleges and universities to ensure greater community access and involvement and to keep expenses down. 3. Create processes within the membership structures to determine when and where the Membership Meetings and Training Conferences should be located. 4. Expand the role of the Training Committee in the overall planning and coordination of the Bi-Annual Training Conference. The Training Committee should do more than just determine educational focuses and conference themes, it should also be more engaged in the logistical coordination of the Bi-Annual meetings. 5. Determine new institutional month to hold our Membership Meetings or Bi-Annual Training Conferences to avoid conflicts with events like Human Rights Day (December 10th) Follow-through Items 1. The Network Coordinating Center will be establishing new listservs for the new and revamped caucuses and working groups throughout January and February 2012. 2. The Network Coordinating Center will convene a meeting of the IMCC working group in January 2012 to clarify and expand the design of the new structure for further membership review. 3. The Network will be unveiling the new and revamped Treaty Mechanism listservs in January 2012 to advance coordination on ICCPR, CAT, and CERD. 4. The Network Coordinating Center will be creating or facilitating the creation of listservs and other coordinating mechanisms to coordinate the Regional Membership Meetings in January and February 2012. 5. The Network will disseminate a broad social movement calendar for 2012 at the end of January to facilitate greater collaboration between the membership and the social movements throughout the year.

For more information pertaining to any of the items listed in this report, please email info@ushrnetwork.org or call 404.588.9761. Also visit our website at www.ushrnetwork.org and subscribe to our newsletter at http://goo.gl/UOEZ8.