Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Wednesday, December 19, 2001 8:27 AM In Support of Equal Access to Sept. 11 Relief Fund December 19, 2001 Dear Mr. Kenneth Zwick, I am contacting you to express my concerns about the possibility of human rights violations that I feel very strongly could occur with upcoming legislation. I a member of Amnesty International, a worldwide human rights movement committed to ensuring respect for the basic human rights of people without discrimination, in support of equal access to benefits under the September 11 Victims Relief Fund for all victims, regardless of sexual orientation or marital status. The United States has always upheld the commitment to international human rights standards. This includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibit arbitrary discrimination. I respectfully request that upon consideration of the rules for administering the relief fund, you apply basic international human rights standards, as well as the general principle of equality. By this I refer to the evident need to include among relatives eligible for compensation those who lost their life partners, as well as de facto parents or children, without regard to sexual orientation or marital status. The State of New York has already adopted such a policy. New York grants compensation benefits "on a showing of mutual interdependence with the victim, in recognition that anyone who shared with the victim living expenses, day to day activities and the emotional bonds of family deserves help in this time of need." It has come to my attention that many innocent people considered lesbian & gay, due to their personal choice of lifestyle, were killed in the September 11th attacks. It seems a terrible injustice to me that since the attacks lesbian and gay surviving partners of those killed have had mixed results in obtaining equal treatment at the local level in the distribution of relief funds by both private and state agencies. It is evident that an inclusive policy on the part of our federal government would definitely help establish a very important principle for other funds such as these. In regard to the compensation of victims, I should think real justice will only be served when ALL families, without discrimination as to "type" of family, that were impacted by the deplorable human rights tragedy of September 11th are rightfully treated with dignity and equality. I would like to thank you for your time and attention given to my concerns. I should think they reflect the concerns of all people interested in the preservation of human rights to all. I shall eagerly look forward to a responce from you regarding your efforts to ensure that all surviving victims of the September 11th attacks have equal access to the relief fund. Sincerely, Individual Comment BILLINGS, MT September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-19 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA002742.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-19