Dallas Proclaims Itself First ‘U.N. Human Rights County’ in Texas

Dallas proclaimed itself the first “human rights county” in Texas. The commissioners court embraced the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an initiative that claims to cultivate communities worldwide, although the Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC) has come under fire for anti-Israel bias and member countries with poor records.

“Human rights abuses occur in our community, our country, and our world every day,” said Democrat Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, who pushed the resolution to a vote on July 5. “We must lead at the local level. We can’t do everything but we can all do something.”

Democrat commissioners Elba Garcia and Theresa Daniel joined Jenkins to pass the resolution. In doing so, Dallas follows Sonoma County, one of California’s most liberal bastions, where the board of supervisors passed the nation’s first U.N. human rights “county” resolution in 2015.

Outspoken and oft-times controversial Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price voted “no” on the resolution as did the outgoing lone Republican, Mike Cantrell.

Breitbart Texas attempted to reach Jenkins for comment regarding the impetus for the post-U.S. Independence Day resolution but his office did not respond. However, as track records go, in February, the Dallas County Commissioners Court passed a “welcoming” resolution (4-1) for illegal immigrants on the same day the state senate voted to cut funds for sanctuary cities. In June, the City of Dallas joined the lawsuit against Senate Bill 4, the nation’s toughest sanctuary city ban signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott. In 2014, Jenkins offered up Dallas County as a potential site to house 2,000 unaccompanied migrant minors inside three vacant public schools.

Jenkins posted the full text of the human rights resolution as part of an online press release. Essentially, it designates December 10 as the “County of Dallas Human Rights Day,” to coincide with the date set by a 2008 U.N. resolution for the International Year of Human Rights Learning.

The document pledges that Dallas as a “human rights county” will join other “human rights local governments around the world in working to provide leadership and advocacy to secure, protect, and promote human rights for all people” as a “model for communities in the U.S. to witness practical ways the human rights framework can make every citizen a partner of sustainable change.”

The resolution also spotlights the U.N. “Human Rights City” project that strives to “build infrastructure for racial justice, conflict prevention, human security, sustainable development,” create “active civic engagement at the local, national, and global level,” and seek “social change.”

Presently, eleven U.S. municipalities call themselves U.N. Human Rights cities: Washington, D.C.; Boston, Pittsburgh, Seattle, plus Carrboro and Chapel Hill in North Carolina, California’s Richmond and Mountain View, plus Eugene, Oregon; Jackson, Mississippi; and Edina, Minnesota.

In June, Nikki Haley, U.S Ambassador to the U.N., blasted the Human Rights Council calling it a “haven for dictators,” as Breitbart News reported. She also sharply criticized them for “chronic” anti-Israel bias. The U.S. boycotted the opening session of the Human Rights Council in March over this prejudice and even threatened to withdraw unless the body reforms.

The council’s sentiments against Israel run philosophically contrary to Texas values where, in June, before signing the nation’s toughest anti-boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) law, the governor said, “Any anti-Israel policy is an anti-Texas policy.”

The Texas anti-BDS law mandates that companies which contract with state government entities verify they do not and will not boycott Israel. It also bars state pension and endowment funds like the Teacher Retirement System, the Employees Retirement System of Texas, the University of Texas Investment Management Company, and the permanent school fund from investing with companies that boycott the Jewish state.

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