Call to Action: Defend Human Rights during COVID-19

April-June 2020

As the last few weeks have made clear, crises like COVID-19 disproportionately harm our most vulnerable communities, including incarcerated, houseless, and indigenous people. In the United States, the current crisis has highlighted and exacerbated systemic injustices that social movements have been fighting for decades. Local and federal responses to the pandemic have ignored the most marginalized among us. In some cases, government officials have abused their emergency powers to push policies that infringe rights to privacy, health, and a decent standard of living. 

Nevertheless, grassroots activists, organizers, and advocates have continued — and doubled down on — their vital work to defend and promote human rights during this unprecedented time. At the University Network for Human Rights, we’d like to amplify the efforts of directly-affected communities and their allies by highlighting just a few concrete actions you can take to support their advocacy while respecting stay-at-home and social distancing orders. 

Demand that vulnerable peoples maintain access to the internet.

Now more than ever, everyday people rely on internet access for work, school, essential updates, and public health information. Unless the Emergency Broadband Relief Program is passed into law, many low-income communities — who are disproportionately susceptible to the health and financial impacts of COVID-19 — will lose access to this ever-more crucial digital infrastructure.

What you can do: Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation and call on lawmakers to pass the Emergency Broadband Relief Program. You can find EFF’s easy-to-use “Contact Your Representative” tool, along with their demands, here. 

Demand that lawmakers protect refugees and immigrants in upcoming COVID-19 relief.

All of Congress’s relief bills have excluded refugees and immigrants from accessing expanded healthcare coverage and economic assistance. In April, the Trump administration threatened to withhold relief funding from states that disregard his anti-immigration policies. It is vital that all families, independent of citizenship status, have free COVID-19 testing and treatment and expanded access to critical economic relief programs. 

What you can do: Use the International Rescue Committee’s virtual platform to demand adequate provisions for immigrants and refugees in the upcoming COVID-19 relief bills. 

Demand free, accessible mental health services for directly-affected communities.

Poor communities and communities of color face significant mental and emotional hardships as a result of decades of discriminatory health, economic, and criminal justice policies — all exacerbated by this pandemic. Formerly incarcerated folks face additional burdens returning from jail or prison in the midst of a pandemic and burdened labor market. Now more than ever, we must ensure that communities most affected by this pandemic receive the social, emotional, and psychological support they need.

What you can do: Communities United has developed a comprehensive “Healing through Justice” platform, which specifically centers mental health and psychological wellbeing for the people most affected by COVID-19. Amplify and support their demands here.

Continue resisting evictions and fighting for rent freezes.

Although COVID rates continue to rise across the nation and unemployment remains at a high, Governor Cuomo re-opened eviction courts in New York state on June 22. This isn’t just discriminatory; it’s bad public health policy. Evictions remove people from secure housing, increase the rates of long-term house-lessness, and in doing so, increase COVID transmission.

What you can do: Stand with Housing Justice for All and the Right to Counsel. Call Governor Cuomo and Chief Judge Janet Difiore and demand a moratorium on evictions, and demand that they the housing courts closed. You can read this coalition’s full list of demands here.

Support LA street vendors in their fight for health, justice, and safety.

In March, Los Angeles city council members unanimously approved an “emergency motion” to immediately suspend operations of many street vendors. While this motion passed out of concern for the spread of COVID, it shortsightedly failed to provide economic assistance for the street vendors whose livelihood it endangered — many of whom are people without documentation.

What you can do: Support the LA Street Vendor Campaign by calling on the LA council to decriminalize street vending, develop temporary safety and health measures, and provide affordable street vending infrastructure that meets county health requirements. You can find the LA Street Vendor Campaign’s full list of demands here. 

Protect Oklahoma’s Medicaid program during the pandemic.

Even as rising unemployment rates leave millions of Americans without employer-based insurance, the Oklahoma state government is attempting to reduce Medicaid eligibility while introducing a “per-capita cap” on spending. Medicaid provides necessary health coverage for groups disproportionately susceptible to COVID-19, including elderly and low-income people. In Oklahoma and across the country, a decrease in Medicaid spending will place dangerous restrictions on treatment for communities relying on state-sponsored health care. 

What you can do:  Submit a federal comment before June 27th and tell Oklahoma’s government why Medicaid is more essential now than ever. You can use a sample message, or write your own, through the National Health Law Program’s advocacy platform here.

Ensure that COVID protections center the needs of people with disabilities.

Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) are crucial service for many people with disabilities. Yet, many organizations that provide HCBS are currently underfunded or lack the resources to operate safely under social distancing constraints.

What you can do: Join The Arc and demand that Medicaid expansions cover crucial community and home care for people of all abilities. You can find their demands here.

Call on South Dakota to respect tribes, their rights, and their safety.

In response to COVID-19, Native American leaders across the country have established COVID-19 checkpoints at the entry-points of their reservations. These ensure that infected travelers are not passing through reservations, thereby reducing the risk of infection in areas already deprived of medical necessities. Although Native leaders are simply exercising their reservations’ rights to political autonomy, health, and safety, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is attempting for force Sioux tribes in South Dakota to re-open because the checkpoints disrupt highway traffic patterns.

What you can do: Join Lakota Law and demand that Gov. Noem immediately retract her legal actions against Native Americans in her state. You can find their petition here.

Support the Mashpee Wampanoag as they fight to maintain their federal tribe status.

Last mont, the Trump administration removed 321 acres of Mashpee Wampanoag land from federal trust, effectively revoking the reservation status – and political autonomy – of the tribe. This month, the Department of the Interior will consider the tribe’s case, and the US Senate is currently debating legislation to protect the tribe’s status from the executive branch’s attach.

What you can do: Stand in solidarity with the Mashpee Wampanoag by signing this petition, courtesy of Color of Change. Additionally, tweet out your support with the hashtag #StandwithMashpee as the tribe’s case moves forward in the courts and the Senate.

Support local vote-by-mail efforts in your community.

Even during a deadly pandemic, states are pushing back against the expansion of vote-by-mail efforts. Now more than ever, it’s crucial that voters have equitable access to the polls — and that means not having to choose between your health and your civic rights.

What you can do: Support grassroots activists in your own community as they fight for access to the ballot box. Local movements like #VoteByMailPHL help educate voters about their rights to absentee ballots. You can also support petitions from orgs like HeadCount.

Protect essential workers. Resist premature re-openings.

As states across the nature re-open against scientific advice, essential workers are being required to return to over-crowded work without ample protection — and these premature openings are killing them. We cannot allow businesses to profit while ignoring the lives and rights of our essential workers who are disproportionately women, immigrants, and people of color.

What you can do: The Poor People’s Campaign is calling for moral revival and non-cooperation during COVID-19. Sign their petition, use their digital toolkit to reach your representatives, and attend their June rally. Ensure that we are centering the voices of our poor and most impacted communities as we consider a plan going forward.

Call on Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards to stop Formosa Plastics

Over 70% of Louisiana residents who have died of COVID-19 have been Black, even though Black people make up only a third of the state's population. One reason: petrochemical plants in Louisiana's Cancer Alley, where Black communities have disproportionately suffered the health burdens of industrial air pollution for decades. A new Harvard study provides further evidence of the link between exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 mortality.

What you can do: Join Rise St. James and the Louisiana Bucket Brigade in calling on Governor John Bel Edwards to revoke Formosa Plastics' air permit. Formosa's planned facility in St. James Parish would double toxic air pollution in the parish, putting St. James residents at serious risk and disproportionately harming Black residents.

Demand an end to US sanctions on Iran.

As of April 21, nearly 85,000 people in Iran have contracted COVID-19 and over 5,000 have died, although actual numbers are likely to be higher. US sanctions are depriving Iranians of essential medical supplies and equipment and impeding diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. Millions of Iranian lives are at risk. 

What you can do: Join Codepink in calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to join the growing call for an end to US sanctions on Iran. 

Demand that the Israeli government release all Palestinian prisoners, including children.

According to Addameer, as of March 2020 there were around 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. COVID-19 has made the release of prisoners, from the US to Palestine, all the more urgent. As documented by Addameer and other human rights groups, Palestinians in Israeli prisons are subjected to torture and ill-treatment, overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and lack of access to basic hygiene. Israel is the only country in the world that automatically detains and prosecutes children in military courts. Nearly three out of four Palestinian children detained by Israel suffer some form of physical violence, according to Defense for Children International.

What you can do: Join Defense for Children International in demanding that Israel immediately release all Palestinian child detainees. Join the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights in calling for the release of all Palestinian prisoners and an end to US funding of Israeli military detention of Palestinian children. 

Support immigrant families

The US Congress excluded immigrant families from the CARES act and associated COVID-19 relief. Not only does this xenophobic exclusion keep much-needed stimulus money out of the hands of immigrant communities, but it also reduces their access to COVID-19 testing and treatment.

What you can do: Contact your congressperson using RAICES’s script. Urge them to support the Coronavirus Immigrant Family Protection Act, a bill providing time-sensitive, crucial relief to immigrant communities across the US.

End ICE detention. 

ICE separates families, denies immigrants due process, and exposes detainees to unsafe and degrading conditions. During this pandemic, ICE detainees remain in cages at severe risk of catching and spreading the virus and without access to life-saving medical care.

What you can do: Join RAICES in calling for an end to ICE detention. Use their email generator to contact Daniel Bible, ICE Field Officer, or call ICE directly. 

Demand clemency and pretrial release.

On April 7th, Michael Tyson, a fifty-three year old man held on Rikers Island for a technical parole violation, became the first person to die of COVID-19 in a New York state jail or prison. Like Tyson, the overwhelming majority of the approximately eight thousand inmates on Rikers Island are awaiting trial or being held for technical parole violations. Over ninety percent are people of color. New York jails and prisons like Rikers are well-documented sites of human rights abuses that disproportionately impact poor people of color, and the pandemic has exacerbated these abuses. While most New Yorkers self-isolate at home, incarcerated people in the state’s jails and prisons are bottling hand sanitizer and digging mass graves for $6 an hour while remaining confined in overcrowded facilities. 

What you can do: Join a coalition, including RAPP, Color of Change, and Worth Rises, to demand that New York Governor Cuomo stop exploiting prison labor and use his clemency power to release vulnerable populations from overcrowded New York jails and prisons.
Sign their petition here. 

Demand NYC reduce its jail population.

Even if Governor Cuomo fails to use his powers to protect incarcerated individuals, New York City officials can still mitigate the virus’s impact on people in jails and prisons. By adopting cite-and-release policies or refusing to press criminal charges, the New York City Sheriff’s Office and District Attorneys could dramatically reduce the jail population. 

What you can do: Share a short video in support of the #FreeThemAll campaign on Twitter or Instagram (instructions here). If you’re a resident of New York City, you can also directly contact your District Attorney using #FreeThemAll’s helpful scripts.

Bring free telecommunications to jails and prisons across the country.

During social distancing, many people are maintaining their social ties through frequent phone and video calls. Incarcerated people, however, often don’t have this option. Prisons frequently charge exorbitant rates for phone or video calls, and prison authorities sometimes remove inmates’ phone privileges as a form of cruel punishment. As prisons limit visitations during the pandemic, it is all the more imperative that incarcerated people are able to communicate with their families, friends, lawyers, and advocates free of charge. 

What you can do: Join MediaJustice, Worth Rises, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, the Ella Baker Center, and others in calling for FCC Chairman Pai to bring free phone and video communication into prisons for the next sixty days. You can find their calls to action here. 

Support the movements of directly affected individuals in your own community.

Incarcerated people and their loved ones have organized across the country to defend the rights of those in jails and prisons, and they need our support.

What you can do: Amplify the demands of community-based movements like JusticeLA (organizing to save lives in LA county jails) and Voice of the Experienced (fighting dangerous virus-related policies in Louisiana prisons).

Donate to a community bail fund.

The United States’ cash bail system targets poor communities and communities of color. Those unable to post bail in the United States might wait two hundred days or longer in pretrial detention — and people can lose jobs, homes, and even custody of their children while held in longer pretrial detentions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the cash bail system threatens to further exacerbate the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus on communities of color — communities that often already lack access to equitable standards of healthcare.

What you can do: Consider donating to a community bail fund, like the Chicago Community Bond Fund (CCBF). Bail funds pool donations for individuals who cannot afford to post their own bail. Funds like the CCBF also often embed their efforts in social movements to end cash bail and mass incarceration more broadly. You can also contact your representatives about cash bail using the Bail Project’s prepared script.

Halt KeystoneXL pipeline construction.

Centuries of racist, anti-indigenous policy have left many native communities in the United States and Canada without access to food, clean water, and healthcare. Some indigenous leaders have called for full lockdowns of their communities to reduce risk of exposure to the virus. Nevertheless, TransCanada plans to continue construction of the KeystoneXL pipeline, which runs through or adjacent to native communities in the US and Canada. Construction workers will likely spread the coronavirus to these vulnerable communities.

What you can do: Join the NDNCollective and #NKXL by demanding that US and Canadian officials halt pipeline construction. You can sign their petition here.

Stand in solidarity with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.

Last week, the Trump administration removed 321 acres of Mashpee Wampanoag land from federal trust, effectively revoking the reservation status – and political autonomy – of the tribe. The disestablishment of a treaty-recognized reservation is a major setback for indigenous sovereignty. Moreover, by making this decision in the middle of a pandemic, the Trump administration has exploited this crisis to push nationalist policies that endanger native lives.

What you can do: Support the Mashpee Wampanoag’s movement to reinstate their tribal lands by signing their petition. You can also call your Congress member and ask them to support and expedite the passage of H.R. 312, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act.

Stop evictions and freeze rents.

Nearly half of American households live paycheck to paycheck. As unemployment numbers reach record levels, the United States government has offered only myopic relief for renters. In the coming weeks and months, more people will likely be forced to choose between paying rent and feeding their families. The US government is failing to ensure housing and a decent standard of living for all.

What you can do: Support People’s Action, a movement of grassroots organizers, through their Homes Guarantee plan. Sign their petition demanding a rent freeze, an eviction moratorium, public housing support, and more.

Support houseless people nationwide and in your own community.

On any given night in the United States, an estimated five hundred thousand people are without a permanent shelter. Across the country, local officials have criminalized houselessness, denied houseless people access to public spaces, and failed to build free or affordable housing — all while supporting health, economic, and criminal justice policies that disproportionately leave queer people and people of color without a place to stay. The coronavirus pandemic threatens to compound these issues as houseless individuals are often unable to practice social distancing and lack access to quality healthcare.

What you can do: Support the efforts of houseless people and their allies in your own community. Grassroots organizations like New York’s Upstate Downstate Housing Alliance are fighting to end houselessness. Support their proposal for a #HomesGuarantee, and sign their petition to provide homes for the houseless in New York here. 

Additional Actions:

Fill out your census. The United States Census is an imperfect tool, but policymakers will rely on its results for the next decade in both determining policy priorities and allocating federal funds. To ensure that these priorities best reflect the needs of all those living in the United States, please encourage everyone you know to fill out their census as well. 

Support safe and secure elections — Closed voting sites, long wait times, and convoluted vote-by-mail procedures threaten the US’s 2020 Presidential Election. Voters should not have to decide between their exercising their right to vote and protecting their health — and elected officials must not exploit this pandemic to suppress the votes of poor people, queer people, and people of color. Join organizations like Public Citizen and RepresentUS in demanding that the FEC put in place automatic voter registration and vote-by-mail procedures before the November Election. 

Attend or volunteer for the Poor People’s Campaign “Digital March” in June. As the Poor People’s Campaign writes, “a global pandemic is exposing even more the already existing crisis of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and militarism, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Support the Campaign and its March by attending and/or volunteering. You can find out more at this link.

For educators: include readings on the pandemic, social justice, and human rights in your classroom or on your syllabus. Now is a difficult time for educators and students alike. Nevertheless, as the pandemic continues to expose and underscore deep inequities that have long threatened our most vulnerable communities, we encourage you to bring candid discussions about social justice into your classroom. For some examples of reading material on the intersection of racial justice and COVID-19, see Racial Equity Tool’s comprehensive reading list (under ‘Analysis’).