In Response to Systemic Racism: Letter from Shawn Boehringer and Kesha James

A way forward: Universal Declaration of Human Rights

by Shawn Boehringer, Executive Director, and Kesha James, Deputy Director for Advocacy

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(June 25, 2020) It is a challenge to find adequate words to discuss recent events in the United States, to thoughtfully analyze our own shortcomings, biases, and failures, and most importantly, to chart a path for future action which will make meaningful change and render our region, our country, and the world, a better place.

In this historic moment of global unrest in response to the merciless killing of George Floyd and so many other black people in this country at the hands of those claiming to act under authority of the law, LASP acknowledges the damage and pain that racially motivated brutality and structural racial inequities have caused and the resulting detrimental impact on the communities we serve. In addition to unwarranted physical violence, people of color endure undeniable injustices resulting in their disproportionate representation of people living in poverty. The recent events have appropriately put a spotlight on the disparities of justice, resources, and basic human decency faced every day by so many, including a large population of our client community.

Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania is guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides an historic framework for a path forward. In its preamble, the UDHR recognizes “the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of the human family as the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world.” It was drafted at a time when “disregard and contempt for human rights resulted in barbarous acts, which outraged the conscience,” and it called for “the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want” as our “highest aspiration.”

Article 25 of the UDHR reflects the work of LASP for its clients. It provides that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being” of their families, including “food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability…or other lack of livelihood in circumstances” which they cannot control. LASP’s work in ensuring its clients’ housing rights are protected, that they have means to provide basic human needs for their families, that they have access to health care, protection from violence, and family stability, all may properly be classified as protecting, defending, and advocating for, fundamental human rights.

These rights are inextricably connected to other rights enumerated in the UDHR which all people must enjoy. Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security. No one should be subjected to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, and all people are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law, the right to freedom of thought, opinion, and expression, and the freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Racism is at the root of many violations of economic, civil and political rights, and there must be urgency in ending it. When human rights are violated, LASP joins in condemning the violators and stands with the victims and their defenders.

Notes:

Marion Fraley