US Census Practices Violate International Law

The Prison Policy Initiative---with Demos as a partner---has submitted analysis to the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva of the discriminatory US Census approach to counting prisoners. PPI and Demos conclude that US Census practices violate international law.

NEW YORK, Dec. 13 -- The United States Census practice of counting prisoners in their districts of incarceration rather than their home districts for the purpose of establishing electoral and Congressional representation is a violation of international treaty. This month, the non-partisan public policy and advocacy centers Demos and the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) submitted their analysis to the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva.

Demos and PPI urged the committee to scrutinize the racially discriminatory redistricting practice of crediting rural white counties with additional population based on the presence of disenfranchised prisoners in violation of Article 5 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The Demos/PPI comments were included in a larger submission [PDF] prepared by the U.S. Human Rights Network.

The United States ratified the CERD treaty in 1994, and therefore is bound under international law to work to eliminate policies that are intentionally or unintentionally racially discriminatory. The CERD treaty obligates each country to report every two years on its progress at eliminating racial discrimination. The United States submitted its report [PDF] in April and will be questioned by the CERD Committee in Geneva in March 2008. The Committee looks to individuals and organizations in each county to critique the reporting counties report and to highlight omissions.

See the press release, the text of the Census/redistricting section or the entire prison submission.

Also see my coverage of PPI's work from a couple of years ago. US Census policy is quite similar to the old "three-fifths clause" of the US Constitution.