Human Rights & Democracy

The Human Rights & Democracy Task Force believes that, in a democracy, government should be accountable to the people. We hold that shared values and strong institutions are essential to ensure that accountability—values such as the rule of law and institutions such as a free press. We consider our founders’ plan to control government’s power through establishing three co-equal branches of government to have been brilliant. We support a continuing effort to become a more perfect union, reaffirming and strengthening the principle of equality under the law, the universal right to vote, freedoms of speech and worship, and freedom from discrimination. We support these values and principles for our democracy and for democracies around the world.

September 14, 2024: Kamala Harris Displays Commander-in-Chief Qualities in Debate With Donald Trump

By Cynthia Efird, Member, Foreign Policy and National Security Task Force Before the September 10 presidential debate, some pundits said Kamala Harris would need to prove her credentials in foreign... READ MORE...

May 15, 2024: Protests: The Bellwether of Democracy

By Cynthia Efird, Member, Foreign Policy and National Security Task Force This May, we have seen extensive media coverage of three distinct kinds of demonstrations and counter-demonstrations: prote... READ MORE...

September 27, 2023: Food Sovereignty for Puerto Rico: Reclaiming our Land

by Dr. Jane Nicholson, national member (WI/Chicago, Puerto Rican Cultural Center) The lack of food sovereignty is a long-standing crisis for Puerto Ricans. Food production and consumption on th... READ MORE...

March 21, 2023: DC’s Choice: Build Housing to Address Residents’ Needs or Continue to Commodify Housing for Developers’ Profits

By Renée Bowser, Esq., Ward 4 Committeewoman, DC Democratic State Committee, Guest Contributor District residents are awash in DC government rhetoric of “affordable housing production.... READ MORE...

March 21, 2023: PPC Guest Elissa Silverman

By Jean Stewart, Secretary, Public Policy & Political Action At our March 6, 2023 meeting, Pat Bitondo introduced former Council Member Elissa Silverman, who had served many years as an a... READ MORE...

January 23, 2023: Representative Katherine Clark (MA-5)

By Katherine Flaherty, MDiv; Member, Public Policy Committee This is a unique opportunity to introduce Representative Katherine Clark (MA-5), recently elected Assistant Speaker and whip of the 118t... READ MORE...

December 21, 2022: Abortion Rights Are Not Just About Babies

By Karen Pataky, Director, Public Policy & Political Action Committee; Chair, Health Policy Task Force The midterm elections and the Georgia runoff have been more about Democracy and the human ... READ MORE...

November 22, 2022: Missing the Picture

by Elizabeth Clark, Chair, Democracy and Human Rights Task Force Republican takeover of the House of Representatives is indeed significant, although what should we make of the launching of their ma... READ MORE...

November 22, 2022: Election Recap with Jim Moran

by Rosalyn Coates, Chair, Racial Equity Task Force Informative, gracious, and humorous, former congressman Jim Moran addressed WNDC members and guests on November 15, 2022 to share his views on the... READ MORE...

September 12, 2022: “The Church–State Wall

by Karen Pataky, Chair, Health Policy Task Force (based on Michelle Boorstein, The Washington Post, July 17, 2020) Far-right Christians have planned to reverse Roe v Wade since the day of the SCOT... READ MORE...

September 12, 2022: Democracy, our New Top Issue

by Elizabeth Clark, Chair, Human Rights & Democracy Task Force Democracy, our new top issue—that is the way it’s been listed for weeks, taking precedence over the economy and inflat... READ MORE...

July 14, 2022: Authoritarianism Accounts for President Biden’s Low Poll Numbers

by Elizabeth Clark, Chair, Democracy & Human Rights Task Force When President Biden is criticized and questioned on why he doesn’t take stronger measures to fight gun violence by, for exa... READ MORE...

July 6, 2022: Separation of Church and State

by Karen Pataky, Chair, Health Policy Task Force “The purpose of separation of Church and State is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in b... READ MORE...

July 6, 2022: The End of Roe v. Wade Means Official Religious Oppression

by Jean Stewart, Chair, Earth & Environment Task Force One often ignored aspect of the debate over abortion, and the coming end of pregnant people’s access to safe abortions in many states,... READ MORE...

July 6, 2022: SCOTUS, 2022

by Zina Greene, Member, Human Rights & Democracy Task Force “It’s June again—that time of year when Americans wake up each morning and wait for the Supreme Court to reso... READ MORE...

July 6, 2022: What Trump was Really Planning to Do

by Elizabeth Clark, Chair, Human Rights & Democracy Task Force Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony before a special session of the January 6 Committee hearing was indeed dramatic. It was also ... READ MORE...

June 24, 2022: The End of Roe v. Wade Will Result in Thousands of Maternal Deaths. AGAIN.

by Karen Pataky, Director, Public Policy & Political Action Committee; Chair, Health Policy Task Force JUNE 24, 2022—Today’s SCOTUS decision will be a death sentence for many ... READ MORE...

June 8, 2022: Enlarging the Supreme Court

By Zina Greene, Member, Human Rights & Democracy Task Force When Democrats get out the vote, as democracy demands we do, and when we keep and improve our Senate majority, we can end the f... READ MORE...

May 12, 2022: Reversing Roe v. Wade Is NOT Just About Abortions

by Karen Pataky, Director, Public Policy & Political Action Committee; Chair, Health Policy Task Force So ex-President Trump’s SCOTUS nominees are fulfilling their purpose. Roe... READ MORE...

May 12, 2022: The Silent Democrats

By Zina Greene, Member, Democracy & Human Rights Task Force Few will forget the Senate committee confirmation hearings for Justice Katanji Brown Jackson and the vile treatment she received from... READ MORE...

May 12, 2022: The Hedgehog and the Fox—The Biden Administration Leads in Dangerous Times

By Ambassador (ret.) Cynthia Efird, Member, Foreign Policy & National Security Task Force Since the February 24th invasion of Ukraine, the growing evidence of Russian defeats on the ground, in ... READ MORE...

April 6, 2022: The Supreme Court: A Hopeless Case?

By Elizabeth Spiro Clark, Chair, Task Force on Human Rights & Democracy The maniacal effort of a Supreme Court Justice’s wife to use her position and influence with her husband to help th... READ MORE...

April 5, 2022: A Letter to Chief Justice Roberts

By Zina Greene, Member, Democracy & Human Rights Task Force Dear Chief Justice Roberts, You must cringe to read about Justice Thomas and his wife as new revelations regarding possible ... READ MORE...

March 29, 2022: Biden/Harris Administration Successes: Progress for People, Building for Strong, Sustainable Growth, Leading with Dignity at Home and Abroad

One takeaway from the media coverage in the week following President Biden’s State of the Union Address is that facts without hype, a serious approach to complicated problems, and a mature accep... READ MORE...

March 11, 2022: What We Should be Getting from the Media: Biden’s Gift to Democracy

This moment brings in the high relief why the media and its commentators  have been so bad at covering a truly enormous event in global history: the Russian invasion of Ukraine and not only its p... READ MORE...

March 1, 2022: Post-Cold War Institutions Confront a Rapacious Dictator

In our despair at the reckless destruction we see Putin inflicting on Ukraine, it is too easy to discount the importance of the European security architecture that US administrations have worked with ... READ MORE...

February 10, 2022: Slow Reveal: Ukraine Crisis Reveals Strength Is in Acting Together with Allies

The latest in a series of documentaries on American presidents was on President George W. Bush. It ends with his decision to invade Iraq in what became the Second Iraq War. The reason for this decisio... READ MORE...

February 2, 2022: Fishing in Troubled Waters: Russia and Culture Wars

This week, as we focus on the dangerous situation caused by the Russian build-up on the Ukraine border and the efforts by the Biden Administration in the UN Security Council and in bilateral exchanges... READ MORE...

January 5, 2022: Victory in 2022!

Don’t hang back from political action for goals that need political action now! If you succeed, you’ll have a Victory High making your 2022 and our 2022 a good year! As we approach the ... READ MORE...

December 13, 2021: Summit for Democracy Shows that the US Is Again Committed to Contest Authoritarianism at Home and Abroad

Some 110 countries will gather via Zoom this month at a Summit, a series of meetings at the Head of State, official, and civil society levels, to discuss and make commitments to fight corruption, defe... READ MORE...

November 10, 2021: Senate Republicans Imperil US Foreign Policy to Spite Biden Administration and Further Political Ambitions

Senate Republicans, encouraged by Senators Ted Cruz (Texas) and John Hawley (Missouri) are damaging US credibility abroad and limiting effective diplomatic input into national security debates at home... READ MORE...

November 10, 2021: Journalism Is Failing to Meet this Moment

At this moment, the only way to save American democracy is for the press and public spokespeople to be unequivocally clear about the Republican party’s attack on democracy. Instead, we are almos... READ MORE...

August 12, 2021: The Power of Americans

It is Biden—not the far right—who supports enhancing the power of Americans as individuals. Flag-wavers on the right are constantly cheering on our liberty. It is assumed in their rheto... READ MORE...

July 9, 2021: Haiti on the Brink of Anarchy

With a constitutional referendum due in September and also with presidential and legislative elections due, mercenaries on the 7th of July 2021, took the fate of the Caribbean island of Haiti int... READ MORE...

January 15, 2021: Joint Letter to Sen. Schumer on S. 1 “For the People Act”

On January 15, the Woman’s National Democratic Club co-signed a letter to Senator Check Schumer urging him to “act to safeguard our democracy for the long term and finally create the fair,... READ MORE...

September 24, 2020: Freedom House

Michael Abramowitz, President of Freedom House, spoke to the Club on August 4. Freedom House was co-founded by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1941, as an independent watchdog organization dedicated to the expa... READ MORE...

August 1, 2020: Fighting the Ideology of Inequality

If you don’t believe that human beings are of equal spiritual value then you don’t have to care whether they get treated equally in terms of the COVID pandemic. And since the premise of go... READ MORE...

July 1, 2020: Call Trump Out on Facilitation of China’s Concentration Camps for Uyghurs

John Bolton’s revelations include President Trump telling Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a 2019 G20 meeting in Osaka, that he supported Xi’s building concentration camps for the Uyghur e... READ MORE...

June 1, 2020: Republican Ideology for Beginners

As almost 100,000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19, Trump’s expression of sorrow has been negligible. Moreover, the disease is taking a terrible toll on the people who are working to sav... READ MORE...