Sanders and Sewell Call on Trump to Honor Treaty Obligations in Response to Scathing UN Report

Tuesday, June 12, 2018


Excerpt:

WASHINGTON, June 12 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) and 18 of their colleagues sent a letter Tuesday to United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley urging the Trump administration to uphold the United States' international human rights treaty obligations and present Congress with a plan to take action to reduce shameful levels of poverty across the country. The letter follows on the heels of a scathing final report from the U.N. Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, on his official visit to the United States.

The UN report, which will be presented to the Human Rights Council of the U.N. General Assembly later this month, highlights the contrast between the few Americans with immense wealth and the more than 40 million people living in poverty, including millions living in what the report describes as “Third World conditions of absolute poverty.”

“We believe the massive levels of deprivation outlined in the report – as well as the immense suffering this deprivation causes – are an affront to any notion of the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Given the breadth of poverty outlined in the report, these rights are simply illusory for millions in this country,” the members wrote.

More than 13 million American children live in poverty, more than 1 in 5 homeless individuals are children and the United States has the highest youth poverty rate and infant mortality rate among comparable nations. Meanwhile, the United States is the only country in the world that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty that protects the economic, health and social rights of children.

“These findings sound a call to action we must heed. We urge your Administration to immediately submit the Convention on the Rights of the Child treaty to the Senate requesting its ratification,” the members wrote.

https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-and-sewell-call-on-trump-to-honor-treaty-obligations-in-response-to-scathing-un-report