RFLC Global Work

State Innovation Exchange and Southern Poverty Law Center co-hosted the first ‘UPR at Home – Southeast’ Convening in Atlanta, Georgia- a groundbreaking event that brought state legislators, directly impacted people, civil rights, and social justice organizations together to witness and document the intersecting harms of intersecting human rights crises in the region in: reproductive rights, maternal health, criminalization of pregnancy, voting rights, democracy, immigration rights, and the treatment of people within the criminal legal system. Despite the United States’ withdrawal from the United Nations UPR (Universal Periodic Review) process, state legislators are leading on human rights accountability with collaborative governance and bold action.

SiX hosted its first ever UN side event during the 70th convening of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York City in partnership with Women’s Equality Center, Ipas, and the CUNY School of Law Human Rights and Gender Justice clinic. Diputada Patricia Mercado from Mexico’s Congress, former SiX RFLC member U.S. Congresswoman Nikema Williams from Georgia, RFLC member New York State Assemblymember Amanda Septimo, RFLC member Iowa State Representative Megan Srinivas, and Philadelphia Councilmember Kendra Brooks represented the necessity and reality of cross-state and cross-border learning to strengthen shared efforts in a global movement.

• SiX’s submission to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review of the United States ‘State Legislators’ Obligation to Fulfill Human Rights for Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Void of United States Federal Protections‘ was signed by 212 state legislators in 45 states
• Over 100 state and local elected officials sent a letter to the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council urging them to proceed with the Universal Periodic Review of the United States despite the federal government’s unprecedented withdrawal from this year’s process

• The SiX Reproductive Rights team represented the role of state legislators in upholding the human right to reproductive and maternal health at the United Nations Human Rights Committee on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

• SiX joined a submission to the Human Rights Committee’s review of the United States outlining the human rights crisis caused by abortion restrictions in the states alongside Amnesty International, Global Justice Center, Human Rights Watch, Ipas, Obstetricians for Reproductive Justice, and RH Impact