On July 19, Ms Desiree Cormier Smith, as the new lead at State Department on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and racial justice convened this civil society consultation. She and others sought to input on how the Summit for Democracy can make real progress on racial justice, building on the U.S. commitments made at the Summit last December.
From the UNA-NCA perspective, the State Department officials were urged to draw upon the civil society shadow reports on the Racism Treaty, CERD, which the United States will report on next month. Attention was raised on the citizen action in the absence of human rights treaty ratification, such as the Cities for CEDAW initiative. A highlight of this is the District of Columbia Council actions which call for annual reporting from each city office on budgeting, programming and staffing through a gender fair, intersectional lens. Further, the UNA-NCA Global Goals at Home initiative has taken shape to focus on progress related to the Sustainable Development Goals in our region, partially due to the lack of comprehensive reporting by the United States on the SDGs. Fulfillment of the SDGs also fosters democracy.
