About Start With Dignity
Learn about the organizations at the core of this campaign, and how to get in touch and stay involved.
Who We Are
The Start With Dignity campaign was begun by Alliance San Diego, a community organization that builds collective power to create an inclusive democracy. We are working alongside the partners below to bring human rights home to the United States. Since 2007, Alliance San Diego has built collective power by developing leaders, engaging communities, advocating for policies, protecting civil and human rights and communicating strategically.
Why This Campaign
Since inception, Alliance San Diego has been dedicated to creating an inclusive democracy and reshaping the world to be more reflective of and responsive to its diverse communities. Today, our work explicitly centers on changing U.S. policies and laws up to align with the standards of international human rights.
This focus emerged over the course of 10 years of working on the landmark case of Anastasio Hernández Rojas, a U.S. resident brutally killed by border agents. Anastasio’s case is the anatomy of law enforcement abuse and impunity, and is the first case to directly challenge the deficient use of force standard in the United States. The case is currently before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
When the U.S. justice system failed to hold law enforcement accountable in Anastasio’s case, Alliance San Diego worked with the UC Berkeley Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic to reach further. In learning about human rights and the ways we can claim and protect them, we came to understand the limitations of U.S. law and the need to change them.
Our experience has shown us how raising public awareness of the human rights gap in the U.S. is critical to securing our dignity. It can spur breakthroughs in the battle for justice and equality. Everyone should know and understand human rights and dignity, and the power they have to change the world for the better.
Justice for Anastasio
In 2010, longtime San Diego resident Anastasio Hernández Rojas encountered border agents who brutalized and killed him for asserting his dignity. Border agents told investigators that Anastasio was not like others they encountered because he looked them in the eyes, he held his head high, and he asked for medical attention when they injured him. They viewed this behavior as threatening and used it to justify kicking him, beating him, pulling off his pants, electrocuting him with a Taser, and putting their weight on him until he stopped breathing.
Despite eyewitness testimony and video, the agents were not prosecuted. Their actions were deemed ‘reasonable’, which does not make sense and was never the right question. The question in this and every case of excessive force should be: was the force used ‘necessary and proportionate.’ That is the international human rights standard, which focuses on the preservation of life, not the perspective of the agent. Until and unless the United States changes its use of force standard to align with its international obligation, more people will be hurt or killed by law enforcement who will face no consequences. Read about the landmark case seeking justice for Anastasio, and how it can set a precedent for the future.
We are proud to stand alongside partner organizations in the Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) and we invite other organizations to become ambassadors for the #startwithdignity campaign.
