ICAR and Co-signers Submit Letter to New Orleans City Council in Support of Res. R-18-5

ICAR and co-signers sent a letter today to the New Orleans City Council in support of the Council's recent commitment to address human rights abuses connected to its investment and contracting.

On January 11, the New Orleans City Council adopted Res. R-18-5, which recognizes that the city has an obligation to “take steps to avoid contracting with or investing in corporations whose practices consistently violate human rights, civil rights or labor rights.” To that end, the Resolution encourages the “creation of a process to review direct investments and contracts for inclusion on, or removal from, the City’s list of corporate securities and contractual partners.”

Importantly, the Resolution does not single out human rights abuses perpetrated by any specific country, entity, group or category of people; it is drafted in the spirit of universal human rights. Despite this, there has been severe backlash against this Resolution, and a proposal has been submitted to try to have the Resolution withdrawn or amended to specifically state that the resolution does not target Israel or support the BDS movement.

The City Council is meeting today (Thursday, January 25) and is under pressure to withdraw or amend the resolution. In response, ICAR and 19 co-signers sent a letter to the City Council ahead of their meeting, supporting Res. R-18-5 and urging the City Council not to withdraw the resolution or amend it to make any exception or waiver to allied foreign countries.

The full letter is available here.

If you have any questions, please contact Nicole Vander Meulen (Nicole@icar.ngo).