by Marjorie Cohn, Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law - Huffington Post

August 19, 2010 - On August 9, the California Assembly took the historic step of becoming the first state to agree to publicize the text of three ratified U.N. human rights treaties, and to submit the required reports to the State Department for consideration by the U.N. treaty committees. The State Assembly voted to pass ACR129, the Human Rights Reporting legislation, by a vote of 52 to 11, with 16 abstentions. The legislation will now move to the state Senate.

The International Convention on Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination requires the United States to publicize the text at the federal, state and local levels, and to make periodic reports to the U.N. Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination every two years on complaints of racial discrimination in every aspect of life, and on progress in eliminating such discrimination...

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