Geneva, Switzerland February 20, 2008 - The proceedings of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) will occur in Geneva, Switzerland on February 21 and 22, where the U.S. State Department and the Department of Justice will defend the Bush Administration's human rights record. The CERD committee will examine U.S. compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). As an international treaty ratified by the U.S., the ICERD has the force of law in the United States.

Prominent U.S. transwomen of color activists Miss Major and Melenie Eleneke are in Geneva for the CERD session to advocate for the economic rights of transgender women of color in the U.S. Miss Major and Ms. Eleneke are representing the San Francisco-based NGO the Transgender, Gender Variant & Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP).

TGIJP and two other Bay Area human rights organizations, WILD For Human Rights and Justice Now, recently released a report to the United Nations documenting rampant human rights abuses against women of color in California prisons, in the U.S. agricultural industry, and in the communities where transgender, gender variant and intersex people live.

Documented abuses include the coerced sterilization and shackling of people giving birth in women's prisons, the mortality rate of Latina child laborers on US farms, and the pervasive employment discrimination against transgender women of color.
You can watch these proceedings unfold and send in your comments! Visit "Demanding Our Rights," a human rights blog at http://ourhumanrights.wordpress.com for more background,
reporting from Miss Major and Melenie, and video and photos of the U.N. proceedings!
Questions? Comments? Please contact TGIJP at 415-252-1444, or info@tgijp.org.