Reviving a New York City tradition of defending human rights

As the Broadway hit “Hamilton” is teaching a new generation, New York City is built on a long and storied history of providing a home for people of every class, color, creed and identity. We’ve long been known as a tolerant and welcoming place for all and a leader in advancing human rights.

But we also know that New York City can only achieve its promise when all of us – regardless of our background – have full and equal ability to achieve our potential.

Unfortunately, for most of the past two decades, the city’s Commission on Human Rights withered in its capacity to enforce the protections afforded by the Human Rights Law. Mayor Rudy Giuliani decimated the commission (which in 1991, under Mayor David Dinkins, had a staff of 241 and a budget of $9.5 million) shrinking it to just seven investigators and four attorneys by 2001. Mayor Michael Bloomberg made modest restorations, but still left the agency with a staff of just 66, with the city putting in just $1.1 million, 80 percent less than two decades earlier. The time it took to resolve a case grew longer every single year of the Bloomberg Administration.

Discrimination has not disappeared, sadly. New Yorkers in “protected classes” still face deep, painful, harmful acts of bias. But the city had, in too many cases, stopped protecting New Yorkers from discrimination.

Over the past year, we’ve started again.

In her 2015 State of the City address, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito made clear: “This city council is going to reinvest in a robust and comprehensive human rights infrastructure.” She proposed a $5 million increase in funding, and the council moved quickly to pass legislation providing for proactive investigations and testing programs to root out discrimination in housing and employment.

Mayor Bill de Blasio joined the council in providing expanded funding. At the same time, he appointed Carmelyn Malalis – a lawyer with a stellar career fighting discrimination – to lead the city’s Commission on Human Rights. Working with the mayor and his chief counsel, Maya Wiley, Malalis has overhauled the agency, rebuilding its divisions, expanding its staff (which will grow to a full complement of 121), increasing outreach and education, reducing the backlog of cases, and launching proactive investigations.

Last year, the city council, City Hall, and the Commission also worked together to pass and implement bold new legislation to expand the protections of the law.

New York City’s new law prohibiting discriminatory employment credit checks is the strongest in the country – so people aren’t denied jobs because of student loans, health care debt or identify fraud.

Through the Fair Chance Act, we “banned the box” to make sure New Yorkers with a criminal record get a fair shot at employment (employers can only check criminal record history after a conditional offer of employment).

This month, we’re at it again. We’ve passed six bills to update and further strengthen our Human Rights Law:

•      Allowing the Human Rights Commission to award fair attorney and expert fees (Intro 818-A, sponsored by Councilwoman Darlene Mealy)
•      Banning landlords from discriminating against survivors of domestic violence (Intro 832-A, sponsored by Councilman Jumaane Williams)
•      Strengthening the way courts read the expansive reach of our local human rights law, regardless of whether State or Federal laws have been interpreted that way (Intro 814-A, sponsored by Councilman Brad Lander)
•      Ensuring discrimination against LGBTQ New Yorkers is not treated differently than any other form of discrimination – finally repealing offensive language in which the council had said in 1986 that it did not “endorse any particular behavior or way of life.” (Intro 819, sponsored by Councilwoman Rosie Mendez)
•      Strengthening the protections for full and equal access to public accommodations, such as stores, restaurants, plazas, or government agencies (Intro 805-A, sponsored by Councilman Daniel Dromm)
•      Establishing a stronger “right to truthful information,” and clarifying the right of an employer to sue when their rights are violated by discrimination against their employees (Intro 815-B, sponsored by Councilman Brad Lander)

These bills may not grab headlines, but they will make a concrete difference in the lives of New Yorkers: Survivors of domestic violence now have an easier time securing a safe apartment; victims of employment discrimination can now get an attorney to take their case; MWBE contractors now have recourse when denied access to an opportunity to bid on a contract because of discrimination against one of their employees.

The new “truthful information” laws will be especially valuable to civil rights testing organizations (who send out undercover testers, often in matched-pairs, to uncover discrimination). Tester organizations have proven effective in rooting out discrimination that is otherwise hard to prove.

Under Commissioner Malalis, the commission is putting testing to work. One area of focus: fighting housing discrimination against New Yorkers based on their “source of income” (such as a Section 8 certificate or other housing subsidy), a bill that was sponsored by Mayor de Blasio when he was on the city council, and that is essential to efforts to combat homelessness.

Our city’s Human Rights Law contains this wonderful declaration: that it “shall be construed liberally for the accomplishment of the uniquely broad and remedial purposes thereof, regardless of whether federal or New York State civil and human rights laws … have been so construed.”

In other words: Whatever happens somewhere else, we will zealously defend the human rights of New Yorkers. (Hear that, Donald Trump?)

We’ve got a long, long way to go. Our neighborhoods and our schools remain shamefully segregated. Our waste transfer stations are predominantly in communities of color. Women earn less than men in job categories across the city. Transgender New Yorkers still face deadly violence. And young men of color are much more likely to be stopped, charged, and yes, tragically killed in encounters with police.

But the team that stands up for the rights of diverse New Yorkers – no matter who they are, where they come from, what they look like – is back on the field. And we’re playing to win.

Darlene Mealy is the chairwoman of the New York City Council’s Committee on Civil Rights. Brad Lander is the New York City Council’s Deputy Leader for Policy.