A New Appeal for Human Rights
Atlanta, Georgia
May 16, 2017
Jill Cartwright, Spelman College
Asma Elhuni, Georgia State University
Violeta Hernandez Padilla, Freedom University
Serena Hughley, Spelman College
Natalie Leonard, Georgia Institute of Technology
Andalib Malit Samandari, Morehouse College
Alma Olmedo-Fermin, Freedom University
Daye Park, University of Georgia
Jonathan Peraza, Emory University
Maria Zetina, Agnes Scott College
Charles Black, Second Chairman of the Atlanta Student Movement, Morehouse College
Lonnie King, First Chairman of the Atlanta Student Movement, Morehouse College
Dr. Roslyn Pope, Author of the 1960 Appeal for Human Rights, Spelman College
Dr. Laura Emiko Soltis, Executive Director and Professor of Human Rights, Freedom University
PREAMBLE
On March 9, 1960, members of the Atlanta Student Movement published “An Appeal for Human
Rights,” which denounced the discrimination they faced as black youth in the city of Atlanta. We,
as students of conscience from Agnes Scott College, Clark Atlanta University, Emory University,
Freedom University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, Morehouse
College, Spelman College, and the University of Georgia, take courage and inspiration from their
legacy as we continue the struggle for human rights.
Today, more than 57 years after the publication of the original Appeal for Human Rights,
communities of color continue to bear the most severe violations of human rights here in the
Deep South. In 1960, black people faced more overt forms of racial discrimination. But racism
did not disappear - it evolved. Today, a powerful force underlying the intersecting forms of
discrimination young people of color face is the assumption that they are criminals. This
assumption takes on structural forms as prisons and immigrant detention centers, where racism is
masked as law and order.
We, as students who belong to black, Latinx, Asian, Undocumented, Muslim, LGBTQIA+, and
ally communities, form a coalition in Atlanta to assert our human rights and resist structures and
assumptions that criminalize our existence. Our coalition is comprised of students who are
diverse in race, religion, creed, class, citizenship, gender, sexuality, ability, and background, as a
necessary representation of the people we seek to empower. Just as discrimination is
intersectional, so is our fight.
Like the students who came before us, we utilize a global human rights framework to assert our
rights as human beings, not as subjects of a nation-state. We recognize the full spectrum of
political, civil, economic, social, and cultural rights, as articulated in the Universal Declaration of

 Human Rights of 1948 and the growing field of international human rights law. Human rights are
often seen as the purview of lawyers. However, we believe that human rights can also be a
powerful tool for marginalized people ourselves, helping us to raise consciousness in our
communities and mobilize people into collective action.
We recognize human rights as universal and inalienable, as well as indivisible and
interdependent. The United States of America, however, only recognizes political and civil rights
as worthy of legal obligation and protection, and ignores many of our economic, social, and
cultural rights. Furthermore, the United States does not safeguard the rights of marginalized
communities, and in many cases, state agencies discriminate and perpetrate violence against
them. As young people and students, we have organized ourselves in order to learn from each
other and across generations, and mobilize as a united force to defend our common humanity.
Together, we denounce the violators of our human rights and dignity, and we pledge to defend
our rights and those of our neighbors. We recognize that human rights are never granted by those
in power. They are articulated by common people and achieved through collective action. We
denounce the City of Atlanta’s appropriation of human rights language for purposes of branding.
We simply cannot call Atlanta an “International City” or a “Welcoming City” if we disregard
international human rights standards and discriminate against immigrants here at home.
Although we are situated in and concentrate our activism locally in the city of Atlanta, in the
state of Georgia, and within the borders of the United States, our solidarity is with all
marginalized people of this world who are fighting for their human rights.
Among the inequalities against which we protest, the following injustices in Atlanta and in
Georgia are outstanding examples:
NON-DISCRIMINATION
Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 14th Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution state that every person has the right to equal protection under the law. In
international human rights law, discrimination based on status such as nationality, ethnicity, race,
and religion is prohibited. Furthermore, children cannot be discriminated against because of their
parents’ status. Despite these legal principles, discrimination in Georgia persists in many forms.
Black people are disproportionately targeted by police and face severe discrimination at all levels
of the criminal justice system, from juvenile detention, to racial profiling, arrest, prosecution,
sentencing, parole, and reintegration into society. The result has been the modern re-enslavement
and disenfranchisement of black people through mass incarceration.
Undocumented immigrants also face discrimination by the government, which accepts their labor,
but denies their right to vote and equal access to education, social security, and other social
benefits. State authorities and businesses use threats of raids, detention, and deportation to
discipline and punish undocumented immigrants, in order to prevent them from asserting their
rights. Undocumented youth also face severe discrimination in access to public and private
higher education in Georgia. They are banned from Georgia’s top public universities and in-state
tuition rates, and are the target of punitive legislation such as House Bill 37, the “Anti-Sanctuary
Campus” bill.

 Georgia also lacks legislation that explicitly prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or
sexual orientation. In Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital, a judge ruled in March 2017 that
sexual orientation is not a protected class against discrimination, thereby setting a legal precedent
for further discrimination against members of the LGBTQIA+ community in Georgia.
EDUCATION
Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that education is a human right
and that access to higher education shall be based on merit. While the United States protects the
right to free K-12 education, it does not recognize the right to higher education, leaving
undocumented student access to higher education up to individual states. Only three states have
an admissions ban against undocumented students, and they are all located in the Deep South:
South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia. In 2010, the Georgia Board of Regents passed Policy
4.1.6 and 4.3.4, effectively banning undocumented students from attending the state’s top public
universities and from paying in-state tuition throughout Georgia. These restrictions echo
segregation laws of the pre-Brown v. Board of Education era, which excluded students based on
an arbitrary social status rather than their academic merit. These laws jeopardize Georgia’s moral
standing in the United States and in the world; they also have severe economic consequences for
all Georgians. By banning undocumented students from public higher education through
admissions bans and in-state tuition bans, Georgia fails to capitalize on its investment in
undocumented students’ K-12 education, estimated at $100,000 per student, and loses $10
million in annual tax revenues.
In May 2017, the Georgia state legislature passed HB 37, the nation’s first “Anti-Sanctuary
Campus Bill,” which punishes private universities for enacting sanctuary policies that seek to
protect undocumented students. The bill was a direct response to Atlanta-wide student protests
for sanctuary campuses following the election of the 45th President. Undocumented students of
Freedom University and Emory University partnered with documented allies to form the Emory
Sanctuary Coalition, strengthening the movement for sanctuary campuses in Georgia. The
Emory Sanctuary Coalition defined a sanctuary campus as one that welcomes, protects, and
supports undocumented students by: 1) accepting all academically qualified undocumented
students, including students with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and fully
undocumented students, and providing full need-based financial aid; 2) protecting undocumented
students by requiring a signed judicial warrant for any federal immigration official attempting to
enter campus; and 3) supporting undocumented students by granting equal access to health
services and legal aid clinics. While Emory administration recently announced its fulfillment of
an equal access admissions policy for all undocumented students, it capitulated to threats by the
Georgia legislature and failed to declare itself a sanctuary campus.
Undocumented black students face intersectional oppression of both anti-immigrant legislation
and anti-black discrimination, and are unable to access sufficient financial assistance at
Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs). For these reasons, we demand that the
Georgia Board of Regents repeal Policy 4.1.6 and 4.3.4 and encourage all private universities in
Georgia, including Emory University, Agnes Scott College, Spelman College, and Morehouse
College, to declare themselves sanctuary campuses and challenge HB 37 in court.

 VOTING
Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that any government’s authority
must be based on the will of the governed. If elected representatives undermine popular
sovereignty, or any section of the population is excluded, then that government is no longer fit to
serve its people. When the original Appeal was published in March 1960, many counties in
Southern states barred citizens from voting based on overt racial discrimination. Thanks to the
successful grassroots mobilization in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, the Voting Rights Act of
1965 declared racially-motivated voter discrimination to be a federal offense. However, just as
racism has changed over time, the methods to disenfranchise and disempower people of color
have also adapted for modern neo-liberal politics. Today, local movements still fight to obtain
and safeguard voting rights in the United States, particularly for undocumented immigrants and
the formerly incarcerated.
Undocumented immigrants pay state and federal taxes and contribute to the social security
program, but are ineligible to receive the benefits they fund. Each year, undocumented
immigrants pay an estimated $12 billion in taxes. In Georgia alone, $352 million in state taxes
come from undocumented immigrants, where they also contend with vindictive state policies.
“No taxation without representation” is a near-sacred tenet of the republic, but in the 21 century,
millions of tax dollars come from disenfranchised people. Therefore, it is important to create fair
pathways to citizenship and establish voting rights for currently undocumented immigrants in
order to fulfill their human right to take part in the political life and governance of society.
st

Felony disenfranchisement is an injustice endorsed by the federal government and enforced by
states, as the U.S. Constitution allows individual states to determine which crimes are punishable
by the loss of voting rights. Thus, a criminal conviction in the United States can lead to an
individual’s “civic death,” making people more vulnerable to human rights abuses, including not
only exclusion from voting rights, but discrimination in accessing decent work and affordable
housing. Moreover, Latinx and black populations constitute a disproportionate number of
incarcerated people and ex-felons, not because they commit more crimes, but because
criminalization of their daily lives and mass incarceration are now the primary means for
securing cheap prison labor, disenfranchising people of color, and amassing billions of dollars in
profit for private prisons.
In addition to direct forms of disenfranchisement, gerrymandering of voting districts based on
race, class, and party affiliation have undermined the democratic process and principle of
representative government in the United States.
HOUSING
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that access to housing is a
necessary component in fulfilling the human right to an adequate standard of living. Access to
housing means access to housing options that are affordable, safe, and sustainable. As the cost of
rent rises while wages remain stagnant, Atlanta faces a housing crisis. The lack of affordable
housing drives people outside of our city limits or to housing units with deplorable conditions,
such as inefficient heating and cooling systems. These conditions, in turn, negatively impact a
resident’s health by increasing the risk for respiratory disease, asthma, and heart disease. When

 combined with increased spending on utility bills and decreased spending on fresh food,
unaffordable and inadequate housing threaten one’s economic security and physical health.
Limited affordable housing places residents at risk of homelessness, especially for renters, as the
eviction process is much shorter for renters than for homeowners. Landlords can send their
tenants a late notice as early as two days after a late payment and can legally seek a court notice
for eviction within ten days.
In Atlanta, the Housing Justice League reports that affordable housing has decreased by 5
percent every year since 2012, and 95 percent of newly-constructed apartments since 2012 have
been luxury apartments. Planned and recent redevelopment in Atlanta, including that of Turner
Field and the Atlanta Beltline, threatens worsened gentrification and a decrease in affordable
housing by excluding long-term residents from the conversation. Furthermore, the City of
Atlanta has not emphasized the preservation and restoration of historic buildings, such as Gaines
Hall of Morris Brown College, a building with national and statewide educational significance
that was damaged by fire under the city’s watch. By conducting a survey of Atlanta’s historic
resources, financial resources and attention could be strategically allocated to ensure the
preservation of our city’s historic buildings and districts.
Policy for developing mixed-income communities must be redesigned, striking a balance
between Atlanta’s redevelopment, preservation of our historically significant buildings and
districts, and maintenance and provision of affordable housing for long-term residents, especially
renters. As affordable, safe, and sustainable housing is interdependent with the fulfillment of
working conditions, healthcare, and educational human rights, negligence in providing housing
opportunities for all communities and residents harms us in all aspects of our lives. Welcoming
Atlanta’s growth must be met with respect for human rights.
HEALTHCARE
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that health and access to
medical care is a human right. Governments are responsible for providing affordable access for
all, including people of low socioeconomic status and people with pre-existing conditions.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, 24 million Americans are threatened with the
repeal of the Affordable Care Act, adversely affecting the populations most in need of care.
Within the state of Georgia, 1.4 million individuals lack insurance, and only a fraction of the
projected need in metro-Atlanta is met by safety net service providers. In Fulton and Dekalb
counties, Grady Health System accounts for a disproportionate majority of these safety net
services. The Georgia Center for Opportunity recommends the following measures for expanding
safety net care: provide financial support from the state government for safety net providers,
restore sales tax exemption for safety net providers, promote telemedicine within safety net
providers, and update regulations surrounding nurse practitioner care.
Beyond health insurance, underlying determinants of health include the fulfillment of economic
and social rights, including access to food and water, safe working and environmental conditions,
accurate and informative sex education, and the provision of behavioral, mental, and
reproductive health services. In addressing the above disparities, policies and regulations

 surrounding health care should provide accessible, affordable, and comprehensive services for
every individual’s needs, without discrimination or exception. State and federal governments
must be held accountable for fulfilling these human rights.
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to life,
liberty, and security of person. Article 5 states that no one shall be subjected to cruel, inhuman,
or degrading treatment or punishment. As such, human rights are meant to protect people from
violence, use of force, and arbitrary or degrading treatment by the state's law enforcement
officials. As a result of increased visibility of recorded killings of black people by police and
grassroots mobilizations for justice in recent years, the international human rights community
has expressed concern regarding police brutality against racial minorities in the United States
and an ensuing lack of accountability.
In the United States, law enforcement officials are charged with serving and protecting the public.
However, in 2016 alone, police killed an estimated 1,023 individuals in the United States.
Moreover, black and brown people make up a disproportionate number of those killed by police.
For example, the organization “Say Her Name” reports that “black women and girls are only
13% of the female population, but they account for a third of all women shot to death by police.”
Law enforcement officials responsible for the killing of unarmed civilians are rarely brought to
justice, as demonstrated by the cases of Alexia Christian and Kevin Davis in Atlanta, and Sandra
Bland, Alton Sterling, Jesse Romero, Sarah Lee Circle Bear, and hundreds of others across the
United States.
Native Americans are more likely to be killed by police than any other group, when compared to
their proportion of the U.S. population. Yet, the press largely ignores the murder of Native
Americans, perpetuating the invisibility of our country’s indigenous people in the public
consciousness. We recognize that the experience of Native Americans is connected to the
undocumented Latinx community, most of which shares a mixed-race heritage with indigenous
peoples of the Americas, but also experience silence and invisibility to avoid detainment and
deportation.
In Georgia, the 2010 passage of HB 87, the “Show Me Your Papers” bill, has legalized racial
profiling. Georgia’s immigration courts--including those in Atlanta and at Stewart Detention
Center--have among the highest deportation rates and lowest grants of asylum and other forms of
relief in the country. Four counties have signed 287(g) agreements for their local law
enforcement agents to be deputized as immigration agents; other local law enforcement agencies
hold and turn over non-citizens in their custody to immigration authorities, even when it is not
legally required.
As demanded by #ATLisReady and the Georgia Not One More Coalition, the Atlanta Police
Department can avoid human rights violations by training law enforcement officials in deescalation tactics, eliminating practices of racial profiling of black and Latinx communities,
refusing to expend local resources in carrying out raids and deportations by federal immigration
authorities, and holding law enforcement officials accountable for unjust killings. We stand in

 solidarity with black Lives Matter and join them in “working for a world where . . . black lives
are no longer systematically and intentionally targeted for demise.”
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the First Amendment of U.S.
Constitution recognize the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. Religious
freedom is the ability to express and worship individual beliefs publicly, without the fear of
discrimination, threats, or physical violence. Freedom of religion includes the right to have
places of worship, preserve dietary restrictions, wear religious attire and head-coverings, and use
language of worship for religious expression.
Recently, many Muslim women in Georgia have reported incidents where they have been denied
access to government buildings due to their religious attire, such as the use of a hijab. Although
worship is permitted on religious grounds, public worship is restricted in certain areas. Georgia
has attempted to deny the right to religious freedom by banning the construction of mosques in
Kennesaw, Lilburn, and Newton County. This violates the right to worship in a safe space and
has increased Islamophobia in the community.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) states that “Islamophobia is a contrived fear
or prejudice fomented by the existing Eurocentric and Orientalist global power structure.”
Instead of teaching tolerance, Georgia has fostered religious intolerance and prejudice by
violating the human right to freedom of religion. Religious freedom also intersects with
immigrant rights. CAIR has noted that "fear of Islam is mixed with racist hostility to
immigration. Islam is perceived as inherently threatening, and Islamophobia as natural and
unproblematic." Georgia should respect the human right to religious freedom, which will help
cultivate a diverse and educational interfaith environment that welcomes all religious traditions.
WORKERS’ RIGHTS
Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that all workers, regardless of
race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or immigration status, have the right to dignified conditions of
work which include, but are not limited to, a living wage, safe and healthy working environment,
opportunities for promotion, and regular breaks and days of rest.
Yet, in Georgia and across the country, workers in the agricultural and food service industries are
particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse from employers. Moreover, workers in these
industries are overwhelmingly people of color and recent immigrants. For undocumented
agricultural workers, who are estimated to constitute as much as 70% of all agricultural workers,
employers can leverage the workers’ legal statuses to threaten them and deter collective action.
While the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 establishes the rights of employees to unionize,
engage in collective bargaining, and combat discrimination without fear of retribution from their
employers, agricultural and domestic workers were explicitly excluded from the NLRA due to
racially-based discrimination by Southern legislators, who did not want these workers -- who
were majority black -- to gain rights and power in the workplace. Furthermore, agricultural
workers are excluded from the Fair Labor Standards Act, which sets minimum wage, overtime
pay, and child labor standards. The absence of human rights has led to rampant wage theft,

 sexual violence, economic exploitation, and physical violence in these industries. In the most
extreme cases, there have been cases of human trafficking and slavery in the agricultural industry.
Between 1997 and 2008, for example, more than nine cases of slavery were discovered in
Florida and prosecuted by the U.S Department of Justice, leading to the release of more than
1,200 workers from forced labor.
In the food service and restaurant industries, women disproportionately occupy server positions
and earn significantly lower wages than their male counterparts, as tipped workers are only
required to be paid $2.13 per hour. Gender inequality is also compounded by race, where
workers of color disproportionately occupy the lower tier, “back of house” positions in the
restaurant industry, so that their physical presence and the many abuses that they experience are
kept out of the public eye. The intersections of discrimination have left considerable pay gaps for
women of color. It is estimated that black women earn 61 cents and Latina women earn 57 cents
for every dollar paid to white men. Furthermore, in states like Georgia where no laws exist to
protect LGBTQIA+ people from discrimination in the workplace, workers from already
marginalized communities are especially easy targets for unjust working conditions.
DEMANDS
Human rights are ours by virtue of our humanity. No government can take them away from us,
no matter the color of our skin, the beliefs we hold, or the borders we may cross. It is the
responsibility of government to respect, protect, and fulfill our full spectrum of human rights,
and it is the responsibility of we, the people, to make clear demands for change if our
government fails to do so or perpetuates state-sanctioned violence against us. In this spirit, we
demand that our state and federal government, and relevant private institutions, take immediate
action to improve human rights standards in the following areas:
1. Non-Discrimination: To ensure the right to be free from discrimination is protected for all
people, Georgia must amend legislation that either discriminates or leads to
discrimination. International human rights law requires governments to also eliminate
discrimination in practice by considering historically disadvantaged groups, taking
measures to prevent situations that replicate and maintain discrimination.
2. Education: To protect the human right to education, the Georgia Board of Regents must
repeal Policy 4.1.6 and 4.3.4, which ban undocumented students from equal access to
higher education based on merit. We encourage private universities to declare themselves
sanctuaries that welcome, protect, and support undocumented students, and challenge
Georgia’s HB 37 “Anti-Sanctuary Campus Bill” in court.
3. Voting: To protect the human right to participate in the political life of one’s society, and
prevent further disenfranchisement of marginalized groups, we demand a reinstatement
of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act so that designated states cannot change voting laws
without federal approval. We demand fair and comprehensive immigration reform that
will provide pathways to citizenship for the 11.2 million disenfranchised undocumented
people in the United States. We also demand the reinstatement of voting rights for
formerly incarcerated people who have completed the terms of their sentences.

 4. Housing: To fulfill the human right to housing, we demand the City of Atlanta provide
more affordable housing units, include community-based participation and decisionmaking to prevent gentrification and displacement, and take measures to decriminalize
homelessness.
5. Healthcare: To protect the human right to health and medical care, we applaud the
improvement of health care access with the Affordable Care Act and demand that access
be further improved. We oppose efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act to increase the
profit margin of insurance companies at the expense of the health and wellbeing of
human beings.
6. Law Enforcement: To protect the human right to life, liberty, and security of person, and
freedom from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, we demand that the
Atlanta Police Department and police departments across the country prioritize deescalation training for all officers, and that courts hold police officers accountable for
unjust killings. We demand the repeal of Georgia HB 87, which legalizes racial profiling
that target immigrants and people of color, the elimination of 287(g) programs that
deputize local law enforcement agencies to act as immigration agents, and the end of the
Secure Communities program.
7. Religious Freedom: To uphold the right to religious freedom, we demand the immediate
repeal of construction bans against mosques in Georgia and denounce the federal Muslim
travel ban. We encourage private religious institutions to promote a diverse and peaceful
interfaith communities that respect human rights.
8. Workers’ Rights: To protect economic human rights, such as the right to form unions, to
safe working conditions, equal pay, and rest, we demand that the federal government
expand the protections of the National Labor Relations Act and Fair Labor Standards act
to include all workers, particularly farmworkers and domestic workers, whose exclusion
stems from anti-black racism that fueled forced labor in these industries during the era of
slavery, convict-leasing, and beyond. We also demand that the United States require
employers to provide paid sick days and parental leave, on par with economic human
rights standards led by other industrialized countries of the world.
We, as human beings and citizens of the world, possess inalienable human rights as declared in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reiterated in the 1960 “Appeal for Human
Rights.” As long our humanity is not treated with the respect it deserves, we will continue to
fight for our human rights and make clear demands for change. After all, as Frederick Douglass
reminds us, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.”
We stand in solidarity with each other and will protect each other. To come for one of us is to
come for all of us. In honor of the courageous students who previously carried the torch, and
those who will lead the struggle after us, we commit ourselves to carrying on the fight for human
rights as long as injustice exists anywhere. None of us are free until all of us are free.