Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) guarantees the right to property. This is yet another right included in reaction to the atrocities of the Holocaust, when property was confiscated from Jews and others, often to enrich Nazi officials. European Jews were stripped of billions of dollars’ worth of cash, artwork, houses, businesses and personal belongings. “Hitler’s Final Solution was not only an act of genocide: it was also a campaign of organized theft,” says one writer.
The WNY Peace Center is one of more than 200 organizations who have joined Project ANAR in a letter to the Biden administration and key Members of Congress, calling for the government to adjudicate applications favorably until it creates a special parole program for Afghans, and maintain pathways for safe passage.
We need your help pushing the government to act to meet the demands in this letter, by using this toolkit to make calls to your Members of Congress: Approve Afghan HP Toolkit http://ow.ly/Jx2n50HcyY5
“Afghans have filed more than 30,000 applications for Humanitarian Parole, in an attempt to access one of the only pathways available to them to seek refuge and family reunification in the U.S. The U.S. government has shifted resources and has more than 30 staff members focused solely on adjudicating Afghan Humanitarian Parole applications, but instead of using their wide discretion to grant parole to Afghans, they’re denying applications. This is unacceptable.
The U.S. owes a duty to Afghans, not just because they have suffered the consequences of decades of foreign intervention and occupation, but also because Afghans have utilized one of the only pathways available to them, and handed over millions of dollars to USCIS in the form of the $575 per person application fee. Until the U.S. creates a categorical pathway to meet the immense need in this emergent situation, Afghans will continue to file Humanitarian Parole applications, and it’s now on the government to act swiftly to grant parole and ensure safe passage for Afghans.
We’ve seen the government lay out a plan that unnecessarily and arbitrarily makes this process more difficult for Afghans, and in the last two weeks we’ve seen that result in what we’ve feared–parole denials. It doesn’t have to be this way — in fact USCIS’s own guidance allows them to grant parole for circumstances including generalized violence.”
Since the UDHR was adopted 70 years ago, there has been an increasing recognition of the issue of statelessness. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort to solve it, and prevent it from occurring in the first place, with the UN Secretary General submitting an annual report on the deprivation of nationality to the General assembly.
