April 4, 2005: NORTON HAILS SECOND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DECISION FOR D.C. VOTING RIGHTS

Washington, DC—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that she was “enormously encouraged and gratified” by the report of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that analyzed the limits placed on congressional voting rights for D.C. citizens and found that “ensuring equal voting rights is a fundamental OSCE commitment.” The United States is a member organization and one of 55 nations, including the United Kingdom, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, and Russia, that are bound by OSCE commitments.

Norton testified before the OSCE when a delegation came to observe the November 2004 election. She praised Tim Cooper, a D.C. resident and executive director of Worldrights, a human rights organization, for his “continuing energetic work for equal voting rights and for his insight in arranging to have the international panel hear from residents and experts” concerning the denial of D.C. voting rights.

“For the second time an international organization has challenged the treatment of District residents as second class citizens within our own country,” Norton said. This brings to 90 the number of countries on record for the grant of congressional voting rights to D.C. residents. Last year, the Organization of American States (OAS) released a decision that found the United States to be in violation of international human rights law.

Norton concluded, “Today the world will not give a pass to any great power on human rights, especially a denial of democracy in its own capital. The new international spotlight on the denial of equal voting rights here is a sure sign of our country’s urgent need to get its own house in order if we are to continue to carry the message of freedom and equality with any credibility around the world.”