Rights
Applied to NY
City Council,
Haiti Cholera
Test, Queens
Scores Low
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
25, updated --
If it's true
that all
politics are
local, then
why not from
the New
York-based UN,
embroiled in
such questions
as
war
crimes in Sri
Lanka and
France
leaving
Muslims at
risk of attack
in the Central
African
Republic,
consider the
records of New
York
City
Councilmembers?
The
Urban Justice
Center today
releases a
report card on
the Council,
assigning
grade from A+
down to a C
and C- in
Staten Island
to
members of the
NYC City
Council.
The report
"revisits two
recent
land-use
projects --
Willets Point
in Queens and
Seward Park
Extension
Urban Park
Renewal Area
in Manhattan,
which impact
New
Yorkers'
housing,
workers' and
government
accountability
rights. It
also discusses
the human
rights
implications
of waterfront
redevelopment
projects in
Mill Basin,
Brooklyn and
St. George,
Staten
Island in post
Hurricane
Sandy New York
City."
The
UN famously
failed during
Super Storm
Sandy,
neglecting to
inform
Ambassadors
when it would
be closed and
when their
cars, with
diplomatic
plates, could
be removed
from the UN's
underground
garages, as
Inner City
Press
reported.
In
Haiti, the UN
thumbs its
nose at
principles of
accountability,
refusing
to even
acknowledge
service of
process of
legal papers
in
court cases
from bringing
cholera to the
Island.
But former
Mayor
Bloomberg
is now a UN
official, on
climate change;
Secretary
General
Ban Ki-moon
was going to
meet with
Mayor Bill De
Blasio until
it got
canceled on
the day of the
East Harlem
gas explosion.
The
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
asked why it
was not on
Ban's public
schedule, but
UN
spokesperson
Stephane
Dujarric said
since it got
canceled, this
did not have
to be
answered.
Isn't the
right to
information
also a human
right?
The
view east from
the UN is of
Queens, and it
is notable
that Queens
Council
members score
low on human
rights, with
Peter Vallone
Jr.
among the
bottom three.
The top eight
in the
rankings are
all from
Manhattan or
Brooklyn; the
top Bronxite
after that
represent
Riverdale.
Have any
Councilmembers
joined the
call on the US
Mission
to the UN, or
State
Department in
DC, to hold
the UN
accountable
for
cholera in
Haiti? If all
politics are
local, they
should.
Updated:
the above was
published at
the March
24-25 midnight
embargo time.
But on the
afternoon of
March 25,
Inner City
Press asked
UJC's Research
and Policy
Coordinator
Nicole
Bramsted if
the reports
considered
Council
members' work
on such issues
as holding the
UN accountable
for cholera in
Haiti -- or,
one might add,
extending a
human rights
monitoring
mandate to the
UN mission in
Western Sahara.
Inner City
Press also ask
for any
comment on
there being no
Bronx (or
Queens) Council
members in the
top eight
ranked
members.
Bramsted and
her colleague
replied that
such work is
included in
the narrative
portion of the
surveys, for
example
resolutions
for the Senate
to ratify
CEDAW; low
scoring
geographies,
it was said,
could be held
up in the
spotlight.
Watch this
site.
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