Racial Justice and Health Care: CERD Report
In December 2007 The Opportunity Agenda collaborated with more than 20 other social justice organizations, scholars, and advocates to prepare and submit a report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) regarding racial and ethnic disparities in health. The report, titled Unequal Health Outcomes in the United States, argues that the United State has the opportunity to do more to address health disparities.
Read the report (pdf)
Human Rights In State Courts: An Overview and Recommendations for Legal Advocacy
Human rights are a crucial part of the United States’ legal and cultural foundation. The founders of our country declared that we are all created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights.
And the United States helped to craft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the international human rights system after World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust.
Over the last decade, more and more legal advocates have begun to incorporate human rights arguments into their work, and the U.S. Supreme Court, in particular, has increasingly cited human rights law as persuasive authority for important constitutional decisions.
This report details the ways in which state courts have considered and interpreted international human rights law. It is intended for public interest lawyers and state court litigators, and also for state and municipal policy makers interested in integrating compliance with international human rights law into their domestic policies.
Download the report (pdf)
Dangerous and Unlawful: Why Our Health Care System is Failing New York Communities and How to Fix It
This report finds that the inequitable distribution of health care services across New York communities violated state, federal, and international laws protecting residents’ right to health care. It also notes that many neighborhoods with the highest health care needs, which are disproportionately low-income and communities of color, often have the fewest health care resources.
Prompted by the release of the recommendations of the New York State Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century – commonly known as the Berger Commission or the Hospital Closing Commission – the report notes that any further cuts to services in underserved communities exacerbating these conditions would constitute new and independent violations of the law.
According to the report, the law requires that state, federal, and municipal governments take steps to guarantee everyone an equal opportunity to access health care. For example, the race or limited English-language skills of a person cannot limit his or her access to care, nor can the racial character of a community determine its residents’ access. The report also notes that international human rights laws indicate that protecting the health of mothers and children is an especially important obligation of governments.
Executive Summary
Download the Report (pdf)
Housing in New Orleans: One Year After Katrina
This report, prepared by the NAACP, The Opportunity Agenda, and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, assesses the state of housing in New Orleans one year after Hurricane Katrina. It analyzes housing conditions in the city prior to the storm, progress made since,and areas in which the rebuilding effort has fallen short. In addition, it offers practical recommendations to ensure the reconstruction of housing is faster, fairer, and more effective.
Download the Report (pdf)
Read our Fact Sheet on Housing in the Gulf
Homeownership and Wealth Building Impeded
A significant barrier to homeownership for many in low-income communities and communities of color can be found in the type and quality of loans available to consumers. A recent analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data prepared by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), The Opportunity Agenda, and the Poverty and Race Research Action Council (PRRAC) assessed the share of subprime loans relative to prime loans in low-income communities and communities of color. The report describes wide disparities in the prevalence of subprime home purchase loans, refinance loans, and home improvement loans, and found that African Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics all had greater reliance on subprime loans than whites.
Download the Report (pdf)
Read the Fact Sheet>>
Health, Opportunity, and Human Rights at Home
The state of health care in the United States is in serious disrepair. Prosperous though it is, the U.S. is the only industrialized country with no universal access to health care, resulting in over 45 million uninsured Americans. Universal and equal access to high quality healthcare is essential to fulfilling the American ideal of opportunity for all. It is also the human right of all people, simply by virtue of their humanity. Bringing this human right home to the United States is therefore crucial to realizing the American Dream.
Download this Policy Brief (pdf)
Incarceration and Crime: A Complex Relationship
A new report by The Sentencing Project questions the conventional wisdom on the relationship between increasing incarceration rates and the decrease in crime rates during the 1990s.
Download this Policy Brief (pdf)
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