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In 2007, the city of Detroit waged a war on profiling by unanimously passing an ordinance that bans profiling based on race, immigration status, ethnicity, dress and appearance, among other factors after talks with local Latino, Arab and Muslim groups, who say that immigrants are sometimes asked for their residency papers after being pulled over by police. Yet less than two years later the would-be Detroit Christmas bomber renewed calls for profiling to improve airline safety in Detroit’s airport. Currently, the citizens of Detroit stand in the trenches of unemployment with official rates exceeding 20% while the national average stands at 7%. The faces of unemployment and underemployment in Detroit disproportionately represents people of color, women and the poor. This April, 2,000 Detroit Public School teachers received layoff notices in violation of their contracts. So when we say Human Rights at Home, what does this really mean for the citizens of Detroit and Michigan generally? Human Rights at Home means the right to meaningful employment in Michigan. Human Rights at Home means the right not to be suspected of a crime in Michigan because of your race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. Human Rights at Home means the right to safe, healthy and fair conditions for Michigan workers. The Human Rights at Home Campaign will bring together panelists to discuss how a revitalized Inter-Agency Working Group on Human Rights, the creation of a national human rights institution in the form of an expanded U.S. Civil and Human Rights Commission, to fully implement human rights treaties that the United States has ratified, including adopting an action plan for implementation of the Convention on Racial Discrimination, and effective coordination between federal institutions and existing state and local agencies charged with monitoring and enforcing civil and human rights laws can improve unemployment rates, eradicate profiling and strengthen worker rights in Michigan!
