Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Page 4 money for a needle exchange program to combat the AIDS epidemic, which has reached catastrophic levels in the District of Columbia. From a broader civil and human rights perspective, the continued disenfranchisement of DC residents before Congress stands out as one of the most blatant violations of the most important civil right that citizens of democratic state process: the right to vote. It should also be seen as a violation of U.S. obligations under the Covenant of the Civil and Political Rights.5 Indeed, the international community has taken notice of this problem. In December of 2003, for example, a body of the Organization of American States (OAS) declared the U.S. in violation of provisions of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, a statement of human rights principles to which the U.S. subscribed in 1948. In 2005, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, of which the U.S. is a member, also weighed in. It urged the United States to “adopt such legislation as may be necessary” to provide DC residents with equal voting rights. On behalf of the Leadership Conference, I respectfully urge the U.N. Human Rights Council, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Minority Rights Group International to 5 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted Dec. 19, 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171 (signed by President Carter, Oct. 5, 1977; ratified Sept. 8, 1992) (As Signatories of the ICCPR treaty the U.S. recognized the inherent dignity, equality and inalienable rights of all members of the human family and promised to “take the necessary steps, in accordance with its constitutional processes . . . to adopt such laws or other measures as may be necessary to give effect to the rights recognized in the present Covenant.” Thus, the United States’ denial of such rights to its citizens in the District of Columbia represents a failure to meet its obligations because enjoyment of civil and political freedom “can only be achieved when conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his [or her] civil and political rights….”)(emphasis added).