America Needs Human Rights

The time has come to stand up for what’s right in America. We may be in the middle of economic recovery, but millions of Americans are not sharing the benefits. The growing ranks of those without adequate food, jobs, shelter, or health care challenge our fundamental notions of right and wrong. America Needs Human Rights makes a powerful case that both the letter and spirit of universally recognized human rights are routinely violated in America by government policies that safeguard profits rather than people. Topics includes understanding human rights, basic needs and human rights, the new American crisis, poverty in America, welfare reform and human rights, policy options, and movement building.
Edited by Anuradha Mittal and Peter Rosset
See companion video America Needs Human Rights.
October 1999
Paperback, 256 pages

Does deepening poverty amid the plenty of a booming economy violate human rights?

America Needs Human Rights provides a cogent analysis of fundamental problems that disfigure our society, along with guidelines for addressing them in a constructive way. It is are accessible, informative, and compelling.
–Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

As the first group of poor people who marched under the banner of Economic Human Rights in the United States, we declared that welfare reform was a violation of our human rights. America Needs Human Rights is an important tool to educate America and the world around us of our very real need for human rights.
–Cheri Honkala, Kensington Welfare Rights Union

I have seen hunger and starvation emerge as primary weapons used to rob entire populations of their will, their dignity, their health, and their freedom. All persons of good will and democratic ideals must recognize food security as one of the great challenges of the next millennium. America Needs Human Rights places economic justice and food security at the forefront of the struggle for universal human rights.
–John Conyers, Jr., Member of Congress, 14th Congressional District, Michigan
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION: Why America Needs Human Rights

PART ONE: The New America Crisis

1. Illusions of Opportunity: The American Dream in Question
John E. Schwarz

2. Hunger in the Land of Plenty
Janet Poppendieck

3. The Inner City: When Work Disappears
William Julius Wilson

4. The Causes of Homelessness
Paul Koegel, M. Audrey Burnam, and Jim Baumohl

5. Slavery in the Fields
Daniel Rothenberg

6. The State of America’s Children
Children’s Defense Fund

PART TWO: Root Crisis

7. Who’s Poor in America
Randy Albelda and Chris Tilly

8. How the U.S. Economy Creates Poverty and Inequality
Mary Huff Stevenson and Elaine Donovan

9. Globalization and Runaway Jobs
Harry Browne and Beth Sims

10. The War on the Poor
Jim Hug

PART THREE: What’s Wrong with Welfare

11. Why American Poverty Policies Don’t Work
Randy Albelda and Chris Tilly

12. Women, Welfare, and Work
Mimi Abramovitz

13. Welfare Reform Violates Human Rights
Anuradha Mittal, Peter Rosset, and Marilyn Borchardt

PART FOUR: Human Rights for America

14. Rediscovering America’s Values
Frances Moore Lappé

15. What Are Human Rights?
Human Rights Educators’ Network of Amnesty International USA

16. A More Holistic Understanding of Human Rights
Chandra Muzaffar

EPILOGUE: Building a Movement for Human Rights in America

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

International Human Rights Treaty Ratification History

Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Monopolies and Social Justice and the Economic Bill of Rights

Resources