Human rights defenders submit shadow report to united nations on florida’s slide into authoritarianism
September 12, 2023
Floridians Travel to United Nations to Condemn Florida’s Attacks on Democracy and Education
October 12, 2023
Educators, students, attorneys and grassroots organizers from Miami to Tallahassee will have their voices heard in Geneva, Switzerland, at the United Nations Human Rights Committee Regarding the Fifth Periodic Report of the United States. They will address Florida’s repressive and anti-democratic tactics like banning the teaching of African-American history, taking over New College, and widespread censorship and scare-mongering.
(FLORIDA) - A group of Floridians will travel to Geneva, Switzerland, to address the United Nations on the anti-democratic tactics taking place in Florida that censor and erode fundamental rights. While the United States calls itself a leader in human rights, a dramatic backslide of rights related to the fundamentals of freedom of expression is occurring in Florida.
Concerned Floridians have come together to produce a written report for the United Nations to consider prior to their upcoming visit to Geneva, when several residents of the state will speak.
One participant from Florida is Renee O’Connor, a Black Miami high school history teacher who took a leave from teaching this year following the state censorship on teaching African-American history. “I would be one of the few educators teaching African-American history in Miami-Dade full-time, and I feel like everything I did would be under attack for teaching the truth,” O’Connor says.
Florida endorses authoritarian tactics that undermine several of the rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which the United States itself ratified.
Two tactics that the state deploys to undermine and stifle freedom are: (1) restrictions of expression, assembly and association in order to shift political power or limit truth-telling about American history, and (2) fueling fear and criminalization within marginalized communities.
“It’s important for the world to know that attacks on democracy are happening on a global scale and Florida is an incubator here in the United States,” says Berbeth Foster, senior staff attorney at Community Justice Project, which supports state-wide grassroots organizing for social change. “Florida is pushing back the progress of racial justice and equity and is silencing marginalized communities.”
The state of Florida has infringed expression, assembly and association by pushing anti-protest laws targeting Black-led social justice movements, attacking public education, and extending restrictions on expression to higher education, including the takeover of the board and presidency of New College and threatening a small business with revoking their liquor license because of a drag show. Additionally, the state has enacted policies that stoke fear in communities, including successfully passing policies that attack immigrant communities and the businesses supporting them.
Madison Markham, a recent graduate of New College in Sarasota, will be participating in this trip and highlighting the impact of the conservative takeover of the college and the stifling of dissent there. “It will create an Americanized playbook for how to do this at every public university in the country,” Markham says of recent events at New College, including replacing the president and numerous board members with conservative leaders.
The testimonies that will be offered and the Floridians traveling to Geneva represent organizations including the Dream Defenders, Florida Rising, Power U Center for Social Change, Novo Collegian Alliance, SURJ and Community Justice Project.
To interview the people traveling to Geneva or the people represented in the report please contact Melissa Taveras, melissataverasr@gmail.com, 786.663.6690 or Nadege Green nadege@communityjusticeproject.com (interviews available in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole)