Revised and restored ‘DC Statehood Now’ petition is now on line
• DC Statehood Green Party encourages U.S. citizens and people around the world to sign on in support of democracy for D.C.
• The petition will be presented to U.N. committees
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The DC Statehood Green Party’s ‘DC Statehood Now’ petition has been updated and placed at http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org/statehoodnow/.
“We encourage all citizens of the U.S. and other nations who value democracy, equality, and human rights to sign the petition,” said Renée Bowser, who has established an exploratory committee for a run in the Ward 4 special election on May 1, 2007 for D.C. Council http://reneebowser.com/. “Statehood for the District of Columbia would end
Congress’s antidemocratic power to impose unwanted laws and policies and to veto locally enacted laws. It would also provide D.C. residents with full voting representation in Congress: one seat in the U.S. House and two in the U.S. Senate.”
“Statehood would give D.C.’s majority African American population self-determination,
self-government, and full citizenship that we deserve — and which all other citizens of the United States of America take for granted,” Ms. Bowser added. “It’s time to end the District’s status as ‘the last colony’ and ‘the last plantation.'”
The D.C. Statehood Green Party and Stand Up for Democracy in D.C. Coalition
http://www.standupfordemocracy.org will present the petition to the U.N. Committee on Human Rights and the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Both Committees monitor compliance with treaties that the U.S. government has signed and ratified.
On July 28, 2006, the U.N. Human Rights Committee found that the District of Columbia’s lack of voting representation in Congress violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a treaty ratified by more than 160 countries, including the U.S. The ruling was a result of a decade of work by Tim Cooper that focused on the denial of District residents’ political rights.
The petition was drafted by Statehood Green Party members David Schwartzman, Dean Murville, Crystal Sylvia, Arturo Griffiths, and Jay Marx.
The DC Statehood Green Party does not support the Davis bill, which would provide only a single voting seat for D.C. in the U.S. House rather than one House seat and two Senate seats. The party has called the Davis bill a trap that would backfire against those who support full democracy and citizenship for District residents. Statehood Green Party members agreed with D.C. democracy activists who have called the bill an affront that establishes ‘one third citizenship’ for District residents, since all other Americans enjoy three voting seats (one Representative, two Senators) in Congress. Statehood Greens have promoted a plan to win statehood based on precedent 1846 legislation that transferred part of D.C. (Arlington) to Virginia.
• For more on the DC Statehood Green Party’s support for statehood and criticism of the Davis bill, visit www.dcstatehoodgreen.org//press/press.php?annc_id=176§ion_id=2
• For a history of the movement for D.C. democracy, including efforts to use voting rights
in Congress to undermine progress towards statehood, read “The D.C. Statehood Papers:
Writings on D.C. Statehood & self-government” by Sam Smith http://prorev.com/dcsthdintro.htm.
• To read legal arguments for statehood, visit “Twenty D.C. Citizens Lawsuit: The case for full democracy and equality” www.dccitizensfordemocracy.org
MORE INFORMATION
The DC Statehood Green Party http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org
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