BILL ANALYSIS
ACR 129
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
ACR 129 (Monning)
As Amended June 29, 2010
Majority vote
JUDICIARY 6-0 APPROPRIATIONS 12-1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Ayes:|Feuer, Brownley, Evans, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Bradford, |
| |Huffman, Jones, Monning | |Charles Calderon, Coto, |
| | | |Davis, De Leon, Gatto, |
| | | |Hall, Skinner, Solorio, |
| | | |Torlakson, Torrico |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | |Nays:|Nielsen |
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY : Requests the State Attorney General to take steps to
assist California cities, counties and state agencies recognize
and fulfill certain reporting obligations California possesses
under international protocols and treaties agreed to by the
United States to protect human rights. Specifically, this
resolution :
1)States that California is required to fulfill and implement
its reporting obligations under international treaties and
domestic laws.
2)States that the United States has agreed to a number of
international human rights treaties and protocols in which it
made commitments to publicize the text of each treaty and
protocol throughout its states and territories, as well as
make periodic reports to the appropriate United Nations
Committee administering the treaty or protocol, including
reports at the federal, state, and local levels.
3)Asserts that members of three United Nations committees
recently used information from unofficial reports by
nongovernmental organizations in their discussions of the
official United States reports, and specifically stated in
their Concluding Observations that they expect to receive
information at the local level in all future United States
reports.
ACR 129
Page 2
4)Asserts that all of the facts and statistics needed to make
reports to the appropriate United Nations Committees are
available in reports already prepared by California for other
purposes, and further states that California can become a
leader among the states in fulfilling reporting obligations
under these treaties and protocols by taking steps to ease the
task of compiling and organizing data for cities, counties and
state agencies.
5)Requests the Attorney General to publicize the text of three
specified U.N. treaties and two protocols among all city,
county, and state agencies.
6)Requests the Attorney General to prepare templates for use by
cities, counties, and state agencies on which to make concise,
complete, and accurate reports to fulfill reporting
obligations under these international protocols and treaties.
EXISTING LAW , under several international human rights treaties
and protocols agreed to by the United States, includes
commitments to publicize the text of each treaty and protocol
throughout the states and territories and to make periodic
reports at the federal, state, and local levels to the
appropriate Committees of the United Nations administering each
treaty or protocol. These include:
1)The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR), a treaty that includes many of the rights set forth
in the United States Bill of Rights and in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, and to which the U.S. in 1992
committed to make reports on human rights injustices every
five years to the U.N. Human Rights Committee;
2)The International Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (ICAT),
incorporating some provisions from the 8th Amendment to the
United States Constitution, and to which in 1994 the U.S.
committed to make reports on human injustices every four years
to the U.N. Committee Against Torture;
3)The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), a treaty including
provisions of the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 24th Amendments to the
ACR 129
Page 3
United States Constitution, and to which in 1994 the U.S.
committed to make reports on human injustices every two years
to the U.N. Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
4)Optional protocols to the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC), namely the Optional Protocol on the
Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, and the Optional
Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child
Pornography, including some provisions of U.S. military and
pornography law, and to which the U.S. committed to make
reports every five years to the CRC.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
analysis, one-time minor cost of about $25,000 for a consultant
(social scientist) to review templates developed by the AG for
suitability in reporting information to the United States
Department of State.
COMMENTS : This measure would request the state Attorney General
to take steps to help California cities, counties and state
agencies recognize and fulfill certain reporting obligations
that arise from international protocols and treaties agreed to
by the United States to protect human rights. In addition to
publicizing the text of these treaties and protocols to increase
awareness among cities and counties in California, the Attorney
General also would be requested to prepare templates that local
governments can use to make accurate reports on human rights
injustices that have occurred in their jurisdictions to fulfill
reporting obligations.
According to the author, although the United States has agreed
to a number of international treaties and protocols to protect
human rights, many local government and state agencies have
never been informed of their reporting duties under those
treaties and protocols, and have consequently failed to make any
required reports to the appropriate United Nations committees.
This measure is therefore intended to help inform state and
local government throughout California of their reporting
obligations under these human rights treaties and protocols. In
addition, this measure seeks to better facilitate fulfillment of
these reporting duties by requesting the Attorney General to
prepare template documents that will make the reporting task
easier for local governments to complete.
ACR 129
Page 4
According to the author, this measure signals that the
Legislature finds it important to address human rights issues,
and presents an opportunity for California to become a leader
among the states in fulfilling reporting obligations under these
human rights treaties and protocols. The author envisions that
the California can accomplish this by having the Attorney
General take steps to make it easier for cities, counties, and
state agencies to complete the task of compiling and organizing
relevant data into their reports-- for example, the preparation
of standardized templates that will help local agencies easily
identify the information to go into their reports.
The author notes that the City of Berkeley in 2006 became one of
the first cities in California and in the country to fulfill
reporting duties about human rights injustices at the local
level. According to the author, the experience of the City of
Berkeley illustrates that the reporting obligations under these
treaties and protocols may be fulfilled with minimal fiscal
impact to local government if the data to be reported is already
available from existing reports produced by local departments,
as was apparently the case in Berkeley. Because the relevant
data was already available to the public, no additional analysis
or data generation was necessary. The remaining task of
compiling information for the U.N. reports was thus considered
appropriate for the city to delegate to volunteers and student
interns, who by completing the task helped save Berkeley from
expending city staff resources.
Analysis Prepared by : Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334
FN: 0005598