Platform CR 2020

Civil Rights Platform

The California National Party (CNP) believes that one of the fundamental roles of a democratic government is to protect the civil rights of all citizens. We are committed to creating a nation that ensures all our citizens have an opportunity to reach their full potential. The CNP will work tirelessly to ensure equal opportunities for all our citizens regardless of their place of origin, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, disability, or background. This commitment to justice must be the backbone of California and reflected in its policy and actions.

Rights of Women 

The ability of women to become leaders in their communities is fundamental not only to the empowerment of women but also to the creation of a fair and just society for all citizens. Uplifting women in all their roles in a community—from their employment to their private lives and choices—is crucial for creating a culture in which every person matters. Only in such a society can all citizens be treated fairly and achieve success in their lives. To address this long history of inequality, the CNP will do the following: 

• Commit to eliminating violence against California’s women and to recognizing the fundamental right of all citizens to protection from violence or abuse, domestic or otherwise.
• Establish stricter laws regarding violence towards women, as well as programs initiated to prevent violence against women, with an emphasis on faster court processes.
• Support programs including educational and preventive initiatives, especially those that serve women at risk of sexual and domestic violence. 
• Encourage the recognition that domestic violence is a public health issue requiring mental and physical health interventions.
• Facilitate the awareness—through public education, mandatory workplace training, zero-tolerance penalties, and other means—that the harassment of women in public by deed or verbally (such as catcalling) has a negative impact on the women involved and on a culture that tolerates such behavior. 
• Businesses exposed to trafficking must provide their employees with training on how to recognize the signs of human trafficking and how to report those signs to the appropriate law enforcement agency. 
• Enforce current laws against the exploitation of sex workers while decriminalizing sex work itself so workers can report abuses without fear of legal penalty. The CNP also supports exploring the legalization, regulation, and taxation of the voluntary sex work industry.
• Support equitable access for women of all ages to training, jobs and promotions, capital, and support in the creation of businesses. 
• Require that all businesses formed or operating in California with 50 employees or more provide bi-annual reports to the California government certifying the general equity and pay equality conditions in their workplace.
• Encourage and provide resources to women, particularly LGBTQ+, women with disabilities, and from historically marginalized ethnicities, religions, and economic backgrounds, to run for public office. We promote and emphasize the need for equal representation in public office from local levels to the highest state and federal levels, including within police forces and the judiciary.
• Require that all educational materials used in classrooms in public and private schools include women’s history and promote gender equity.

Abortion Rights and Medical Equity

Medical science and healthcare have historically focused on the needs of men, to the detriment of women’s health, as well as that of transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals. The CNP will work to ensure that all Californians have access to healthcare that serves their unique needs.

• The CNP supports the long-established policy that it is a woman’s right to control her reproductive choices and will work to keep abortions safe and legal in California.
• Birth control must be covered by all insurances, regardless of whether it is funded by and procured through a woman’s employer, including employers who object to birth control or abortion, or through individually obtained plans.
• Preserve confidential, unrestricted access to affordable, high quality, culturally sensitive health care services, including the full range of reproductive services, contraception and abortion, without requiring guardian, parental, or partner’s consent or notification, or government intervention in any reproductive decision.
• Require that all health insurers, health providers, and employers not charge differing plan rates due to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, disability, or background.
• Ensure equal access to appropriate healthcare for patients from the trans and gender-nonconforming communities in line with the patient’s gender expression and sexual orientation.
• Require sex education in school curricula in California, including education on sexually transmitted diseases, for all schools receiving public funds.
• Require pharmaceutical companies to test the efficacy and safety of all drugs using participants from diverse genders in research studies, not just men.

LGBTQ+ Rights

The CNP promotes the inalienable equity and equality of all human beings. The LGBTQ+ community has historically been excluded from this ideal by society. In California, there must be a zero-tolerance policy for any discrimination against people for the sole reason of personal attraction, identity, or self-image.

• Members of this community will be treated with the same respect and consideration, under the law, as any other citizen by employers, teachers, law enforcement, politicians, business owners, or any others.
• Crimes against the LGBTQ+ community will be treated the same as crimes against anyone else, with the exception of crimes motivated by derision or hatred against LGBTQ+ people as a group, which then will be treated as hate crimes.
• Denial of services to LGBTQ+ people based on their identity will be entirely illegal, be those of healthcare, consumer goods, adoptions, and legal rights. Marriage between consenting adults will be the law of the land, regardless of identity or orientation.
• California will be a safe haven for members of this group to take refuge from persecution and endangerment by their countries of origin, and future California embassies in those countries will serve likewise.

Addressing Structural Racism 

While progress has been made in California over the last century in reducing racism and other forms of bias, much work remains to be done. Where structural bias exists it is the duty of the state to identify and remedy it, so as to develop a system that does not unfairly discriminate and guarantees equal access to justice.

The CNP will work for a California that guarantees equality of opportunity for all, regardless of their place of origin, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, disability, or background.

• The CNP supports legislation that ensures equal pay for equal work, legal protections against discrimination, and robust mechanisms for addressing harassment as well as other symptoms of racism, sexism, and other forms of cultural bias.
• Collecting and categorizing information is necessary for good policy decisions, but this requires that the data not be either poorly analyzed or not collected in the first place. Using disaggregated demographic data for all California residents, broken down to recognize additional ethnic categories beyond the simplistic ones currently in use, will provide more data necessary to produce solutions.
• Because institutional racism is compounded by a broad lack of diversity in local and state government employment, California should implement affirmative action hiring initiatives for executive- and mid-level positions across all state and county agencies.
• The CNP supports all efforts by Black Californians, Japanese Californians, First Nation Californians, and other groups seeking justice and reparations from the United States federal government and is committed to paying California’s share for these crimes.
• Upon independence, the CNP is committed to addressing the historical wrongs suffered by specific racial and ethnic communities. We will begin this process by establishing a committee of experts drawn from different fields to recommend a fair and feasible manner in which to address these historic injustices.
• Police violence is a problem for all Californians, but especially for many historically marginalized groups such as Black and Latinx Californians. The CNP will address this problem through several measures, as laid out in the “Policing Reform” section of our Rule of Law plank.

First Nation Californians 

While California has a deplorable history of discrimination and hostility toward many different groups, the perpetration of government-backed theft and genocide against the indigenous First Nations population has been unique and horrifying. Reparation for this historic injustice, as well as ending it in its current institutionalized and societal forms, is the responsibility of all Californians. The CNP respects the sovereign rights of First Nation Californians and will work for California to exert pressure on the federal government to do the same.

• First Nations’ lands must be doubled in size in order to provide some compensation for past crimes. Where possible, this returned land will come from 45% of California currently controlled by the federal government. If any present owners must be displaced, which will be avoided if it is practical, they will be paid fair market value for their land by the California government.
• California must form an office that will recognize official tribes independently of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Office of Federal Acknowledgement, so California can begin providing services and assistance to tribes long unrecognized and neglected by the United States.
• The California delegation to the United States federal government must strenuously defend the rights of First Nation Californians. If our representatives are unable to guarantee that the federal government will safeguard the rights, health, or safety of First Nation Californians, it is the responsibility of the California government to actively protect them as all other citizens.
• Upon independence, First Nation Californians will have the option to either re-assert their right to autonomy and self-rule, or to voluntarily join the Republic of California, as determined by a vote of each group’s members. 

Community Inclusion 

For too long, vulnerable segments of society such as seniors, people with disabilities and chronic illness, the housing insecure, and others have faced discrimination in our communities, ranging from denial of services and employment opportunities to open hostility. They are especially vulnerable to victimization, marginalization, social isolation, and physical insecurity, often leading to further social stigma and exacerbating underlying health issues. The CNP will work to assure that all Californians are treated with dignity, respect, and equity while prioritizing policies that keep people in their homes and their communities whenever possible.

• The CNP supports enacting a Californians with Disabilities Act (CDA), which will build upon existing California statutes to provide protection that exceeds the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. These will protect the rights of people with disabilities in the workplace, public accommodations, and governmental programs, services and activities.
• Other California laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities, such as the Fair Employment and Housing Act, will be harmonized with the CDA, or left in place and bolstered.  Education about the rights of people with disabilities and enforcement of the CDA will include a public sector compliance office so that civil litigation is not the only method to achieve access and justice.
• Robust tax credits will be given for small businesses seeking to become accessible to people with disabilities and comply with the law.
• Upon independence, California will enter into the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), an international treaty that was rejected by the United States Senate. Until then, we support California’s voluntary compliance with the CRPD and advocate for the United States to enter that convention.
• The CNP recognizes the contribution and unique needs of our elder citizens and will allocate resources to senior employment issues, housing, quality of life, and to the prosecution of individuals and organizations convicted of victimizing or exploiting seniors.
• Recognizing the correlation between mental illness, poverty, and housing insecurity, particularly in minority communities, the CNP is committed to ending the use of police and jails as the primary means of addressing mental illness. In particular, ending the use of private prisons will reduce the financial incentive to incarcerate people with drug addictions, many of whom are undiagnosed and unmedicated.
• California cities must end the practice of furnishing homeless individuals with one-way bus tickets to other communities in order to merely relocate individuals at risk.
• Programs that support communal inclusion, like In-Home Supportive Services, must be funded at adequate levels to assure that people with disabilities can reach their potential and safely remain in their homes if they choose to do so.
• Policies within social safety net programs that treat beneficiaries as suspects must be eliminated. Though preventing fraud and abuse is an important part of any program, being impacted by a disability is not a crime.
• Support generous tax credits for families caring for aging relatives or family members with chronic illnesses or disabilities, so people can remain with their communities.

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