W O R L D R I G H T S
Human Rights Advocacy Worldwide
November 7, 2005
Mr. Sean H. Woo
Chief of Staff, U.S. Helsinki Commission
234 Ford House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Mr. Woo:
Reference is herein made to our letters of March 16, 2004, August 9, 2004, and April 5, 2005, requesting that the U.S. Helsinki Commission hold hearings on U.S. compliance with OSCE human dimension commitments. In particular, we are concerned with the continuing restriction on equal congressional voting rights for the 570,000 residents of the District of Columbia. As you know, the U.S. Helsinki Committee is mandated under U.S. public law to monitor all OSCE country human rights compliance records, including those of the United States. Under the OSCE's 1990 Copenhagen Document and international human rights law, the U.S. has promised to guarantee every U.S. citizen equal voting rights in the national legislature through duly elected representatives, including the residents of Washington, D.C.
To date, it has failed to keep its political promises and legal commitments.
This fact has been repeatedly recognized by the OSCE and the OAS. Since our last request for hearings, the OSCE/ODIHR Rapporteur for Democratic Elections of the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) expressed serious concern about the restriction on equal congressional voting right for residents of Washington, DC, noting in his final report that “an entire city's population” in the United States remains disenfranchised. In Washington in July, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly unanimously passed a resolution calling on the U.S. Congress to grant the people of Washington, D.C. “equal voting rights” in Congress in accordance with the country's OSCE commitments. On March 31, 2005, ODIHR/OSCE released its “Election Observation Mission Final Report on the November 2, 2004 U.S. Elections”, which likewise observed that the U.S. Government must honor its OSCE human dimension commitments by guaranteeing equal congressional voter rights for D.C. residents. And on December 28, 2003 the Organization of American States (OAS) issued a landmark legal decision that found the U.S. Government in violation of international human rights law by virtue of its discriminatory policy toward D.C. residents.
In view of the international community's emphatic denunciation of US policy toward D.C. residents, we reiterate our request for public hearings on this matter.
Sincerely,
Timothy Cooper
Executive Director
cc: Chairman, Sen. Sam Brownback; Co-Chairman, Rep. Chris Smith; Sen. Gordon Smith; Sen. Saxby Chambliss; Sen. Richard Burr; Sen. David Vitter; Sen. Chris Dodd; Sen. Russell Feingold; Sen. Hilary Clinton; Rep. Alcee L. Hastings; Rep. Frank Wolf; Rep. Joseph Pitts; Rep. Robert Aderholt; Rep. Mike Pence; Rep. Ben Cardin; Rep. Louise Slaughter; Rep. Alcee Hastings; Rep. Mike McIntyre; D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton