10,000 Voices and Counting: FAC’s Human Rights Petition Reaches a Milestone
We are proud to share that FAC’s Change.org petition asking the United Nations to recognize public sex offender registration as a human rights violation has passed 10,000 verified signatures.
The petition asks the High Commissioner to investigate the practice of public registration in the United States and take appropriate action. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 5) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 7) prohibit cruel or degrading treatment or punishment. Placing people on a public shaming list for life, when decades of research show that list does nothing to prevent sexual offending, is exactly that kind of treatment.
Roughly one million people in the United States are required to register. In Florida, registration is for life. Names, photos, and home addresses are posted on a state website indexed by Google, and people stay on that website even after they move out of state, leave the country, or die. In fact, more than half of the people on Florida’s registry don’t even live in Florida.
The harm doesn’t stop with the registrant. Lost jobs, lost housing, isolation, fear of vigilante violence, and constant stress fall on spouses, children, parents, and anyone close to them. And it isn’t making anyone safer. A 2021 meta-analysis by Zgoba and Mitchell, reviewing 25 years of research, found that registration and notification do not reduce sexual or non-sexual reoffending.
Ten thousand voices is a message that is much harder for decision-makers to ignore!
If you haven’t signed yet, please do. If you have, please share it with family, friends, and on social media. Send the link to your local news outlet and let them know about this milestone!
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So very pleased to read that we are taking this “common sense” fight to the establishment, the United Nations. Not that I have a lot of confidence in that body, but relying on US judges to bring common sense legitimacy seems too unpredictable, too undependable, too slow and a waste of time – too much political bias, too many jurisdictions, states, etc. Sad we cannot address issues in federal courts and in Congress. Sad we cannot get US laws limiting this ignorance. Sad we cannot curb the hysteria of mainstream voters and the media. We seem to have no influence with Gov DeSantos and his government. We have to go to the UN to do what we have not the power, audience, nor appeal to effect. There are several grass-root organizations against the Registry in the country. Has anyone tried to engage a national working group, a coalition of associations like NARSOL and Human Rights groups, effective groups in Boston, Nebraska, and the midwest into one collective effort with more voter awareness? In my opinion, we need a national leader, a national strategy, and a national presence and it seems we have none.
Again, I applaud the efforts of FAC in bringing this issue to the attention of the United Nations. National visibility and international condemnation of actions taken against U.S. citizens are all important steps toward addressing US malfeasance, influence and bringing about reform.
I continue to believe that what is needed is a collective national effort: a national task force and working group composed of U.S. human rights organizations, anti-registry groups, the ACLU, the ACLJ, supportive industry partners, congressional leaders and committees, and members of academia. Representatives from the national headquarters of both the DNC and GOP should be involved as well. We should be working with partners in encouraging grants, academic partnerships, and university-sponsored research, including doctoral dissertations and PhD-level studies that rigorously document and validate the irrationality and unintended consequences of many of these laws. We also need current scholarship and professional engagement through grants and outreach directed toward law enforcement, prosecutors’ and legal associations, and national sentencing boards. The goal should be to expose the lack of evidence supporting measures such as warning signs on lawns, driving licenses and passports; draconian restrictions on housing and employment, perpetual social exclusion, and layer upon layer of punishment long after a sentence has been completed.
We need to stop the flagrant abuse to federally fund this unjust national architecture including the overtime funding to small local police departments for cowboy-tactics of entrapment and stings when trafficking is not the target or measured outcome. We need to address on its peripheral the homelessness and abuse of felony convictions for petty administrative failures when no intent exists. Two hundred felony arrests for administrative lapses without intent in a computer or reporting rule is not the intent of the law. We as a nation and a society can do so much better.
In my opinion FAC appears to be one of the most comprehensive and effective grassroots organizations challenging the registry anywhere in the country. If any organization is positioned to help bring this issue to a national tipping point, FAC may be among the best candidate. The organization appears to have individuals with the skillset necessary to provide leadership, establish a national working group, develop a coordinated national strategy, identify a recognized national leader, and create the policy tools needed to drive this issue into the bipartisan wings of Congress.
I am not trying to be negative about this whole thing, but, I highly doubt there would be anything positive out of this. I mean, what power has the UN over the US?….Nothing. Especially having this president who will not want the UN telling him that the Sex Offenders Policies in the US are a violations of human rights. Most likely he will say “Well, that was Biden who allowed all those criminals from other countries loose in the streets, raping our women and children and now I had to figure out how to be tough on them”….
Looking at the whole situation from my perch, I can only think that the UN declaring those policies a violation of human rights would have any meaningful impact would be if….IF….we go in front of the Supreme Court.
So I think my thoughts would be something like this:…. First, we win a big portion of the current lawsuit, if not the whole thing…..then…The U.N. makes a declaration that the sex offenders policies are abhorrent and inhumane….then… I don’t see a reason as of why the Supreme Court will refuse to hear our case…that is to me the best way to free the shackles of these policies and laws.
Other than that….well….we will be prisoners of this crap way beyond our deaths.
Manny, I understand your doubts, but this petition offers several positives. It keeps our mission moving forward, brings new people into the discussion, and gives families a shared way to speak up. It creates opportunities to share research, challenge misleading claims, and explain the harm these laws can cause. Without our voices, only one side gets heard, and important truths remain hidden. International attention could also help attract journalists, researchers, and other advocates. We cannot promise what the UN will do, but building understanding, support, and lasting connections gives us more opportunities to pursue meaningful change. Together, our voices matter.
Thanks for all you’re doing FAC. My monthly donation is not a whole lot but, it’s guaranteed.
Every dollar helps. Everything is a whole lot to us. It also is an indication that you support what we’re doing and that’s meaningful also.
All I can say is Pray. Like I pray every day for forgiveness.
So when does it go before the UN, or has it already, and if they agree it is harmful, what would be the outcome?
Unfortunately, I doubt the U.S. would do anything positive because the minds of most people are inherently poisoned against us.
I think it was two years ago, about, that the FAC President went and spoke before the UN.
I think it is more about awareness and having numbers to point to when the opportunity does come up to speak against the registry. With almost a million people on the registry there should be far more signatures. Everyone who can, needs to sign. Imagine if a million people signed. That really would be saying something very loudly.
Thank you, Mp. Correct.