The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement Friday blasting the State of Alabama — and the United States more broadly — for its record on women’s and immigrants’ rights.
According to the UN, the organization sent a three-member delegation to Alabama, Oregon and Texas earlier this month at the invitation of the United States government.
The leader of the delegation was feminist college professor Frances Raday, Chair of the Israeli Association of Feminist and Gender Studies and Vice-Chair of the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Discrimination Against Women.
“In its greatly appreciated invitation to our expert group, the United States opened the door to a frank interchange regarding both good practices and gaps in US women’s enjoyment of international human rights,” said Raday. “We acknowledge the United States’ commitment to liberty, so well represented by the Statue of Liberty which symbolizes both womanhood and freedom. Nevertheless, in global context, US women do not take their rightful place as citizens of the world’s leading economy, which has one of the highest rates of per capita income. In the US, women fall behind international standards as regards their public and political representation, their economic and social rights and their health and safety protections.”
Among the delegation’s specific criticisms of Alabama is the state’s photo voter ID law, which it claims is discriminatory toward women.
“Our group is concerned that changes in voter identification laws, such as those in Alabama, which increase bureaucratic requirements for voter identification, in particular problematic for women who change their name in marriage and reduce the number of voting centers, can make registration and voting less accessible for the poor, of whom a majority are women,” Raday said in a somewhat difficult-to-follow sentence.
The UN’s criticisms come just over a week after the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund filed a lawsuit in Federal court challenging Alabama’s photo voter ID law. The suit claims requiring voters to show photo ID disenfranchises over 250,000 Alabamians, many of them black and latino, in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill rejected the suit offhand, saying photo voter I.D. is in no way a barrier to voting, much less discriminatory.
“We want to make it real easy to vote and real hard to cheat,” Secretary Merrill said in a statement. “As of today, there have been no credible reports of a lack of ability for someone to cast their vote because of this law.”
The UN delegation also bemoaned the state of “women’s reproductive rights” in Alabama, saying there are a lack of abortion providers and “many of the clinics work in conditions of constant threats, harassment and vandalising (sic), too often without any kind of protection measures by law enforcement officials.” Raday also said Alabama has “a history of severe violence against abortion providers.”
Raday concluded the UN delegation’s criticisms of Alabama by claiming the state discriminates against immigrations by not allowing them to enroll in Medicaid.
“According to various stakeholders we met… Alabama (does) not allow lawfully residing immigrants to enroll in Medicaid even after completion of the federal waiting period of five years,” she said. A spokesperson for Medicaid did not immediately return Yellowhammer’s request for comment. The UN group also criticized the United States a whole for not providing government healthcare to all of its citizens.
The United Nations’ criticisms of the United States are nothing new, but still may come as a surprise considering the US is by far the UN’s largest funder, contributing 22 percent of the organization’s total budget, the maximum allowed under its bylaws. The US also funds over 28 percent of the UN’s “peacekeeping budget,” which has over 80,000 troops deployed worldwide.
Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers (R-AL3) has been among the UN’s loudest critics, even sponsoring a bill that would end America’s participation in the organization or any group associated with it.
“The U.N. continues to prove it’s an inefficient bureaucracy and a complete waste of American tax dollars,” said Rogers. “Although the United States makes up almost a quarter of the U.N.’s annual budget, the U.N. has attempted a number of actions that attack our rights as U.S. citizens.”
Rogers specifically mentioned the UN’s climate agenda, its anti-Second Amendment policies and its history of anti-Israel stances.
“Why should the American taxpayer bankroll an international organization that works against America’s interests around the world?” asked Rogers. “The time is now to restore and protect American sovereignty and get out of the United Nations.”
