Human Rights
Protecting Peace on our Prairie by Promoting the Value of People
The Dem-NPL supports defending the rights of each individual to live up to their natural potential, promoting peace-building, protecting democracy, championing human rights defenders, and safeguarding each vulnerable minority and marginalized community without abandoning and thereby strengthening who we are as North Dakotans. We support the development of and will promote a stand-alone Commission on Human Rights to nurture respect and dignity.
People of Color
The Dem-NPL supports affirming the value of people of color and Native Americans, promoting civility, addressing the physical, political, legal, economic, and environmental violence perpetuated, and confronting bigotry and other forms of intolerance – whether veiled or visible.
Senior Citizens and Elders
The Dem-NPL supports programs helping seniors reside independently in their own homes and communities. We support affordable housing for our senior citizens, health care and prescriptions, voting rights, and fighting the problems of elder abuse and neglect, and exploitation of our senior generation.
Indigenous People and Native Americans
The Dem-NPL supports our sacred obligation to our Native American nations and peoples who hold the strongest ancestral ties in North Dakota, endorsing Tribal Sovereignty and Tribal Jurisdiction, honoring the treaties and federal statutes, and acknowledging past injustices which destroyed Native American economies, social and religious systems, enabled the taking of their lands, and created intergenerational trauma.
New Americans, Immigrants, and Refugees
The Dem-NPL supports policies strengthening relationships between immigrants, community members, and law enforcement, respecting the constitutional rights of immigrants, and ending racial or ethnic profiling. We support expanding efforts to provide refugees fleeing violence with the opportunity for a new life and exploring ways to address humanitarian crises, and support that federal funding should follow these refugees as being in the national interest.
Religious Freedom
The Dem-NPL supports religious freedom, protecting religious minorities, and a progressive vision of religious freedom respecting pluralism and rejecting the misuse of religion to discriminate.
People with Disabilities
The Dem-NPL supports ending discrimination based on disability status, whether physical, mental, developmental, or behavioral, ensuring people with disabilities can live full and productive lives, and complete access to quality health care and programs.
Sexual Assault, Violence and Human Trafficking
The Dem-NPL supports resolving the scourge of adult and youth sexual assault, gender-based violence, and human trafficking, most notably against our Native American women and children. WE further support measures to stop human trafficking in North Dakota.
LGBTQ+ People
The Dem-NPL opposes discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations based on sexual orientation or gender identity. We support adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the ND Human Rights Act and ND Fair Housing Act, and enabling the rights of transgender people to access public spaces.
Veterans and their Families
The Dem-NPL supports veterans receiving the care and benefits they have earned, increasing veteran educational benefits and job training, fighting to end chronic homelessness, and forming an outreach program to provide pre-deployment and post-deployment support to family members and service members.
DREAM Act
The Dem-NPL supports the DREAM Act.
Hate Crime Legislation
The Dem-NPL supports enactment of hate crime legislation. While freedom of expression is a fundamental constitutional principle, we condemn the hate speech, violence, and illegal activities of hate groups and supremacists, and condemn the promotion and growth of such groups and individuals.