Amnesty International USA announced on Friday that it will “co-sponsor” the Women’s March on Washington, set to take place the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, Jan. 21.
“We’re proud to stand with people from all across the country to declare that women’s rights are human rights and to demand that the new administration and Congress protect everyone’s human rights,” said Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA, in a press release. “We decided to cosponsor the Women’s March on Washington to help send a loud and clear message that human rights must be respected.”
The Women’s March, too, quotes Hillary Clinton’s famous 1995 speech, given at a United Nations conference in Beijing. “The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new administration on their first day in office, and to the world, that women’s rights are human rights,” the march’s mission reads. But the New York Times reports that the march’s leaders axed that quote as a slogan idea because they didn’t want to alienate people who might have problems with Clinton.
The leaders of the march are striving to make their event as broad and apolitical as possible. There are no specific demands; the mission statement makes a general call for “parity and equity at all levels of leadership in society” for women. This sign-on by Amnesty is one hint that other organizations might use the march as a platform for their own issues. “As a co-sponsor, AIUSA is rallying its grassroots members across the country to attend the march,” Amnesty’s press release reads. “Cornerstones of the march are protecting human rights, dignity, and justice. Organizers have been clear that all people are invited and welcome to participate in the march.”
So far, the march has attracted 29 partner organizations, including Amnesty International USA. The rest of the list includes an SEIU chapter, the Mothers of the Movement, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the National Organization for Women (NOW), the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and the Muslim Women’s Alliance. After giving up on getting a permit for the Lincoln Memorial, the original intended site for the pre-march rally, organizers have settled on the intersection of Independence Avenue and Third Street SW, near the U.S. Capitol, as a starting point.
