On Thursday, October 30, ACS released Human Rights at Home: A Domestic Policy Blueprint for the New Administration, authored by Professor Catherine Powell of Fordham Law School, and co-hosted, along with the Center for American Progress and The Opportunity Agenda, a panel discussion of the Blueprint and the issues it raises. The Blueprint lays out a series of recommendations for ensuring that the next Administration will honor the United States' commitment to human rights not only overseas but at home, in U.S. domestic policy. It points to the relevance of human rights principles to domestic issues such as: inequalities in access to housing, education, jobs, and health care; the application of the death penalty; and the prohibition of torture. Professor Powell argues that by enhancing attention to human rights at home -- by, for example, revitalizing an executive branch Interagency Working Group on Human Rights and establishing a national Human Rights Commission -- the United States will be in a stronger position both to secure justice at home and to bolster the nation's moral authority to lead other nations by example. The panel, featuring prominent human rights experts, discussed the Blueprint recommendations and their implications, and also presented new polling data on how the public and U.S. policymakers view human rights.

The panel featured:

• Alan Jenkins, Executive Director, The Opportunity Agenda
• Harold Hongju Koh, Dean of Yale Law School and Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law
• Catherine Powell, Associate Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
• Moderator, Bill Schulz, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Read the Blueprint here and watch video of the event here.