If ongoing attempts by various states in the U. S. to restrict voting rights prevail, many minority and poor voters may be disenfranchised in this year’s presidential election, according to the NAACP—a concern the organization is taking to the world.
The civil rights organization will send a delegation to the meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland this month. An issue paper has already been distributed to council members, and NAACP President and CEO Benjamin T. Jealous said they expect to be “well-received.”
“It’s clear that the intention of many of these states is to have an impact on the next presidential election and we want to make sure that the world community is on notice about the impact of these laws,” Jealous said in a March 8 teleconference. “The UN is the world’s forum for both promoting and defending democracy and in these hyper-partisan times in the U.S. we believe it is important for them to weigh in about what is happening here in our democracy.”
This is the first time in decades that the civil rights organization has approached the UN body with a specific complaint. The last time was in 1947 when W.E.B. DuBois delivered an appeal to the world.
“Now like then the principal concern is voting rights. In the past year, more states in this county have passed more laws pushing more voters out of the ballot box than at any point since the rise of Jim Crow,” Jealous said.
According to a recent report by the National Urban League, another civil rights organization, in the past year 34 states attempted to pass legislation that would require a government-issued photo ID, shorten voting hours, curtail early voting, and/or impose penalties limiting the registration process. Jealous said in that same time, about 5 million voters were blocked from the polls.
The NAACP is hoping the intervention will prompt UN officials to come to America and observe the impact of the laws then make recommendations about the actions that should be taken and how they should be treated globally.
“What we are seeking to do is to frankly make sure that the world understands what these laws do, that their impact is, clearly, to diminish access to the polls amongst poor people, and specifically amongst minority groups,” Jealous told reporters. “The power of the UN relative to state governments in the U.S. historically, is primarily to shame them and to put pressure on the U.S. government to bring them into line with global standards for democracy.”
Voting rights infractions in the U.S. have to be addressed on a worldwide stage because of this nation’s role as the “gold standard” of democracy, the Black leader added.
“Whenever our government, or specific state governments here take an action that is contrary to the ideals of U.S. democracy, let alone to the ideals of the UN, it is important that we quickly get over there and make clear what the actual impact is so that folks who try to replicate the law can’t pretend that they’re doing a service to their country,” he said. “One thing that history has taught us is that any tear in the fabric of human rights protection here in the U.S., because we are historically that great ‘beacon on the hill,’ becomes a gaping hole somewhere else in the world.”
In addition to Jealous, the delegation will include Roslyn Brock, chairman of the NAACP Board; Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington, D.C. office; and senior vice president for advocacy and policy Ryan Haygood.
