1. PROTECT THE RIGHT TO VOTE

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Ensure fair access to the democratic process through Automatic Voter Registration (AVR), pre-registration, and Election Day registration.

2. IMPLEMENT COMMON-SENSE GUN LAWS

Address the U.S. gun violence epidemic by investing in research and passing legislation that enforces universal background checks, increases funding for nationwide gun violence prevention and intervention programs, bans assault weapons and high capacity magazines, enables the Centers for Disease Control to research gun violence as a public health issue, disarms all domestic abusers, and makes ERPOs available in every state.

3. ENACT BOLD CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORMS TO CURB MASS INCARCERATION

Rethink national policies that exacerbate the mass incarceration problem in the U.S. by making sure marijuana legislation includes strong provisions that clear marijuana criminal records and ensure meaningful reinvestment in communities of color, reforming the pretrial system including the removal of barriers to bail payments, improving the timeliness and quality of national data collection, and passing legislation to automatically expunge certain federal offenses from criminal records.

4. PROTECT DACA RECIPIENTS AND TPS HOLDERS

Provide permanent protections to young immigrants by passing legislation that puts Dreamers and TPS holders on a pathway to citizenship.

5. TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE THROUGH CLEAN ENERGY PROPOSALS AND INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT

Heed the warnings from climate scientists on the dangers of inaction on climate by passing bold legislation that takes on carbon emissions and invests in clean energy and infrastructure.

6. SHORE UP PROTECTIONS AND ACCESS TO REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND FAMILY SERVICES

Center the needs of young people and their reproductive health by protecting and expanding the ACA and Medicaid, investing in pregnancy prevention programs, and stopping the Trump administration"s proposed domestic gag rule.

7. ADDRESS THE STUDENT DEBT CRISIS

To curb the mounting student debt crisis, Congress must pass legislation that ensures young people have access to free or debt-free college, implement solutions to help borrowers, tackle bad actors profiting off of borrowers, and hold for-profit colleges accountable for cheating student borrowers.

8. PROVIDE COMPREHENSIVE FEDERAL PROTECTIONS FOR THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY

Congress should fight anti-LGBTQ bullying, discrimination, and mistreatment, by passing explicit protections to end discrimination in all areas of life, increase and improve assistance for runaway and homeless youth and survivors of violence, and end conversion therapy.

9. REMOVE STRUCTURAL BARRIERS FACED BY YOUNG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

In order to remove barriers faced by disabled youth, Congress must provide access to comprehensive care that does not discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions and provides the right to access long-term supports and services, ends subminimum wage and segregated employment, and eradicate asset limits for people with disabilities.

10. DISMANTLE BARRIERS TO OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE OF COLOR AND YOUNG PEOPLE OF ALL FAITHS

The 116th Congress should invest in young people of color by creating racial and economic opportunities and providing civil rights protections. They should similarly invest in young people of faith with welcoming attitudes toward religious diversity and rejecting any attempts to restrict or manipulate constitutional protections of religious freedom.

The post FACT SHEET: Ten Ways the New Congress Can Act for Young People appeared first on Generation Progress.

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The narrative turned out to be false; during the 2018 cycle, young people campaigned around the issues they cared about and voted in historic numbers. In fact, 31 percent of young people turned out to vote, an increase of 10 points compared to the 2014 midterm elections. With Millennials projected to be the largest voting bloc by 2020, young people are poised to change the politics of their communities, and the nation.

By seizing their power, young people showed America that they have what it takes to tip the scales on many of today"s most critical issues, including democracy, gun violence prevention, criminal justice reform, immigration, climate change, women"s health, student debt, and diversity and inclusion.

Now is the time for accountability. As the 116th Congress works to frame their priorities for the next two years, members must center young people in their policy proposals and legislation. Generation Progress and the Center for American Progress have identified policy areas that are important to young people and can drive youth civic engagement and voter participation.

View our fact sheet which summarizes our findings in this report.

The post REPORT: Ten Ways the New Congress Can Act for Young People appeared first on Generation Progress.

However, the political and economic chaos in Egypt revitalized the country’s art scene for the good and bad. The artistic environment in Egypt certainly became both cathartic, allowing many artists to thrive and create art influenced by the political and economic state of Egypt. However, this community is also dangerous, as artists worked under an oppressive regime.

The Egyptian government passed a law regulating art-funding NGO’s back in 2014 and closed an art gallery in December. Many artists have also been banned from traveling abroad to receive awards for their artwork.

“In recent years, the Egyptian arts and culture sector has faced debilitating repression,” the Arterial Network, a non-profit network of artists and activists building democratic arts practices in Africa, stated in December. “In 2014, a new law was passed to regulate receipt of external funds for NGO’s and this had a devastating impact on the sector with some organizations forced to close or to relocate their offices and activities. Prohibitive restrictions affecting the freedom of artists and journalists are ongoing.”

Historically, contemporary art has been a powerful and impactful way to address pressing political and social issues. Luckily, artists are learning to work around the oppression and censorship in Egypt.

Police brutality is one of the major issues plaguing Egypt, but it is also a huge issue for American Millennials. A 2015 report by the Black Youth Project, conducted at the University of Chicago’s Center for Study of Race, Politics and Culture, found that about 55 percent of black Millennials claimed that either they or someone they knew had been harassed or physically harmed by the police. The study found that only a third of white Millennials and a quarter of Latino Millennials said the same.

The report used a decade’s worth of surveys and government statistics to study how opinions and views among Millennials varied by race. The recent police killing of unarmed teen Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014 led to a national civil rights movement called Black Lives Matter.

According to the same report, about three-quarters of black Millennials said in 2014 that they believed they could make a difference through politics, while only about half of white and Latino Millennials said the same. Black Millennials also showed more support for federal policies that promote job creation and benefits for the poor in the United States, including the Affordable Care Act.

The post Egyptian Artists Continue Work Despite State Oppression And Censorship appeared first on Generation Progress.

Vice President Michel Temer replaced Roussef and immediately chose a new all-male cabinet that includes no people of color.

While Brazil was already falling behind when it came to female representation, Temer’s new cabinet is a huge step back for diversity and representation in Brazil’s government. According to the country’s 2010 census, about 50.7 percent of Brazilians identified as black or mixed race. The lack of diversity in Temer’s cabinet has sparked backlash throughout the country, as well as around the world.

Temer’s decision to elect only men to his cabinet has set the nation back decades – Brazil’s cabinet last lacked women in 1979, when the country was a military dictatorship.

Many say that Rousseff’s impeachment campaign was fueled by sexism. When the country’s lower chamber voted to impeach the president back in April, people held up signs, reading, “Bye, dear,” while media coverage of the impeachment depicted Rousseff as unfeminine and hysterical. Rousseff herself openly decried the impeachment process as sexist.

“There has been, mixed in all of this, a large amount of prejudice against women,” Rousseff said at a news conference in April. “There are attitudes toward me that there would not be with a male president.”

The United Nations office on women’s rights condemned the campaign against Rousseff back in March.

“As a defender of women’s and girls’ rights around the world, UN Women condemns all forms of violence against women, including the political violence of a sexist nature directed against President Dilma Rousseff,” Nadine Gasman, head of UN Women in Brazil, said.

Rousseff was accused of misappropriating funds to cover budget gaps, but corruption has long been a theme among Brazil’s leaders, including those who charged Rousseff. Few male leaders have ever faced impeachment.

Brazil’s feminist movement has brought the issues of violence against women, the pay gap between men and women, the lack of political representation, and contraceptive and abortion rights, especially in the wake the spread of the Zika virus, which can cause serious birth defects in pregnant women, to the forefront of the national conversation. Many male lawmakers are currently fighting to tighten abortion restrictions in the face of the Zika virus and illegal abortions can lead to jail time for women.

Studies show that sexist political discrimination can discourage women from seeking office or thinking of themselves as leaders. During a recent speech, Rousseff called the senate’s decision a coup and commented that she was proud to have been Brazil’s first female president.

The post Brazil Convenes All-Male Cabinet As First Female President Is Impeached appeared first on Generation Progress.

“I decided to step down from my post,” Davutoglu commented during a televised news conference in Ankara after a meeting with the Justice and Development Party’s central committee. “I have never negotiated or bargained with anyone… I am not planning to become a candidate in the upcoming [party] elections.”

Erdogan founded the Justice and Development Party, which has led Turkey since 2002. Davutoglu has served as the prime minister since 2014. Many believe that Davutoglu stepping down as prime minister means a weaker parliamentary system and stronger presidency in Turkey. Erdogan has been pushing harder recently against perceived opponents and his relationship with Davutoglu became strained. The president and prime minister disagreed on economic policy and pretrial detention for dissidents and just last week, the Justice and Development Party removed the prime minister’s authority to appoint party officials.

“Having mandated [Davutoglu’s] resignation… Erdogan is now head of state, but also de-facto head of government and head of the AKP,” Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said. “That does not seem to have satisfied Erdogan’s urge to consolidate political power in his hands… Never before in this system has one person amassed so much power in his hands as Erdogan has.”

Turkey has experienced a number of political crises recently, including attacks from Islamic State militants and negotiations with the European Union on how to handle the recent influx refugees. Davutoglu recently discussed securing a deal with European Union leaders about which refugees would be returned to Turkey in exchange for refugee aid and visa-free travel for Turks in Europe. Turkey is currently hosting almost 2 million refugees from Syria and other countries.

The post Turkey’s Prime Minister And Party Leader Resign In The Wake Of Conflict appeared first on Generation Progress.

Police killings in Rio have increased 54 percent since 2014, when Brazil hosted the FIFA World Cup. The Summer Olympics are scheduled to take place in Rio in August.

The recent police killings appear to be racially motivated – most of the victims are young, black men from marginalized parts of Rio.

“Despite the promised legacy of a safe city for hosting the Olympic Games, killings by the police have been steadily increasing over the past few years in Rio,” Atila Roque, Executive Director of Amnesty International Brazil, said. “Many have been severely injured by rubber bullets, stun grenades and even firearms used by police forces during protests. Until now, killings by police have for the most part not been investigated, rigorous training and clear operational guidelines for the use of ‘less-lethal’ weapons have not been established and the authorities still treat protesters like a ‘public enemy.'”

Rio is not the only place in Brazil to experience widespread police brutality. Sao Paulo saw a huge increase in police brutality in 2014. Between January and September 2014, police officers murdered 478 civilians during confrontations, about twice as many victims as the same time period in 2013. However, Sao Paulo’s police department blamed the increase on a simple rise in criminal culture rather than racial tensions.

The recent police killings in Rio draw parallels to racially-motivated police brutality in the United States.

“Protests in Ferguson and similarly militarized reactions from the police have also called into question the militarization of U.S. municipal police forces,” human rights advocacy website Wola.org reported on the similarities between police brutality in Ferguson and the militarized reactions of Brazilian police. “And, as in Brazil, the broader public suddenly became conscious of police practices that communities of color throughout the country have experienced regularly… The outcry over Ferguson resonated in Brazil.”

The Summer Olympics are set to begin August 5.

The post Rio Sees Increase In Killings By Police Ahead Of Summer Olympics appeared first on Generation Progress.

“During March and April 2016, Turkish border guards used violence against Syrian asylum seekers and smugglers, killing five people, including a child, and seriously injuring 14 others, according to victims, witnesses and Syrian locals interviewed by Human Rights Watch,” the report read. “Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Ministry maintains the country has an ‘open-door policy’ for Syrian refugees, despite building a new border wall.”

This discrepancy between words and actions was further noted by researchers at HRW.

“While senior Turkish officials claim they are welcoming Syrian refugees with open borders and open arms, their border guards are killing and beating them,” Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher. “Firing at traumatized men, women and children fleeing fighting and indiscriminate warfare is truly appalling.”

Back in April, Human Rights Watch reported that the border guards were enforcing the country’s one-year-old border closure and had shot at Syrians escaping advances by ISIS. The border guards blocked thousands of fleeing refugees after their camps were hit by artillery fire in mid-April.

“Six of the incidents Syrian witnesses described took place near the Khurbat al-Juz-Guvecci border crossing, about 50 kilometers south of the Turkish city of Antakya,” the Human Rights Watch report read. “The seventh happened near the Syrian border town of al-Duriya. Seven of the injured people said they had briefly stayed in the Salaheddin camp for displaced persons in the village of Khurbat al-Juz, overlooking the newly erected Turkish border wall nearby. Most of them, and others who traveled straight to the border, said they had recently fled fighting in and around Aleppo.”

The European Union also recently shut its borders to refugees. The EU signed a migration deal in March to stop refugee flow into Europe, giving 6 billion pounds in aid to help Syrians in Turkey.

But the money may not be enough.

“The EU shouldn’t just stand by and watch as Turkey uses live ammunition and rifle butts to stem the refugee flow,” HRW’s Simpson continued on to say in the report. “EU officials should recognize that their red light for refugees to enter the EU gives Turkey a green light to close its border, exacting a heavy price on war-ravaged asylum seekers with nowhere else to go.”

The post Human Rights Advocates Report Turkish Border Guards Are Killing Syrian Refugees appeared first on Generation Progress.

101 years ago, Ottoman officials massacred between 664,000 and 1.2 million Armenians. Reports of these murders and abuses were recorded by survivors of the genocide, considered the 20th century’s first massacre, over the years.

“Rape and beating were commonplace,” David Fromkin said of the genocide in “A Peace to End All Peace.” “Those who were not killed at once were driven through mountains and deserts without food, drink or shelter. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians eventually succumbed or were killed.”

However, on the genocide’s commemoration, the Wall Street Journal ran an ad that ignored reports of the Armenian genocide.

“[The ad] contains a URL for the genocide-denial group FactCheck Armenia, the unfounded arguments of which boil down to 1) It wasn’t actually that many people, and 2) The Armenians started it,” Sam Biddle wrote in Gawker. “That group is itself a part of Turkic Platform, a pro-Turkey group that attempts to distract from discussion of the genocide with events like Times Square dance routines.”

Although the United States has the world’s largest dispersion of Armenians outside of Armenia, the United States government has failed to recognize the Armenian genocide, since the country wants to maintain strong relations with Turkey.

“In the United States, a powerful Armenian community centered in Los Angeles has been pressing for years for Congress to condemn the Armenian genocide,” The New York Times stated. “Turkey, which cut military ties to France over a similar action, has reacted with angry threats. A bill to that effect nearly passed in the fall of 2007, gaining a majority of co-sponsors and passing a committee vote. But the Bush administration, noting that Turkey is a critical ally–more than 70 percent of the military air supplies for Iraq go through the Incirlik airbase there–pressed for the bill to be withdrawn and it was. The roots of the genocide lie in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unequivocally called the massacre a genocide, releasing a statement on the commemoration saying: “[Canadians] preserve the memory of those who lost their lives, and those who suffered, during this genocide and pay our deepest respects to their descendants, including those who now call Canada home.”

When asked why it would run an ad denying the Armenian genocide, the Wall Street Journal said that they “accept[ed] a wide range of advertisements, including those with provocative viewpoints [and that] the varied and divergent views expressed belong to the advertisers.”

The post On 101st Commemoration Of Armenian Genocide, Wall Street Journal Runs Ad Denying It appeared first on Generation Progress.

The 20-year-old artist came to the United States in 2012 and recently decided to address the issue of Islamophobia in her artwork after witnessing the phenomenon. She stitched together pieces of hijabs mailed to her by Muslim American women to create an American flag in a piece titled “Home Sweet Home.”

Sultan came to New York from Malaysia at age 16 to study fine arts at Parsons, The New York School of Design, according to an interview with ThinkProgress. She uses her art work to explore her identity through her faith and personal background and as a platform for Muslim women to express themselves in Western society.

“Art has always been political in nature,” Sultan told Think Progress. “Throughout history, you see people using art as a way or tool to voice their opinions about their social environment and issues that surround them. Art is always a critique on something and that itself makes it political. I use art as a way to voice my own opinions on issues and struggles that Muslims face within a western society, as it has direct effects on me as a Muslim.”

Sultan also commented that she didn’t have to worry about Islamophobia in Malaysia, but once she came to the United States, she began to feel alienated. She decided to use art as a way to express her frustrations with Western society’s Islamophobia.

Islamophobia is apparent in many aspects of Western society. For example, Fox News religion correspondent Lauren Green demonstrated anti-Muslim sentiment towards Reza Aslan, a Muslim historian and PhD professor of religion.

Islamophobia can also lead to violence in the United States and other Western nations. February 10 marked the one-year anniversary of the Chapel Hill shooting, in which UNC student Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha and her sister and NCSU student Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha were killed in their home in their home in Chapel Hill. Their neighbor Craig Stephen Hicks was arrested for shooting and killing the three in a single attack and the police department claimed that their investigation indicated that the crime was motivated by an ongoing parking dispute. However, the victim’s families and many others believe that the murders were motivated by anti-Muslim sentiments.

Millennials are fairly active in fighting Islamophobia with knowledge of Islam. According to a 2009 survey from the Center for American Progress, Millennials cite the September 11 attacks as the most significant influence shaping the attitudes and beliefs of their generation. While attitudes towards Muslims and Islam have become more negative since September 11 in the United States, Millennials have become more engaged in efforts to increase knowledge of Islam.

The post Artist Uses Work To Comment On American Islamophobia appeared first on Generation Progress.

About 22,200 refugees were deported from Germany in 2015, while 37,220 refugees returned home voluntarily, Peter Altmaier told the Funke Media group of newspapers.

“A realistic benchmark for 2016 would be a doubling of these numbers–that’s where the states must take action,” Altmaier told Funke Media.

About 1.1 million refugees entered Germany in 2015. The country is trying to speed up the process of either granting these refugees asylum or sending them home if they are unqualified. A large majority of the deported refugees originally came from the Balkans. Germany clarified that it would only offer asylum to refugees fleeing conflict or persecution, not refugees fleeing poverty.

Germany is working on negotiations with Afghanistan that would allow Afghans from parts of the country now considered safe to return home, but a deal has not been struck yet. The country has also seen the number of new refugees drop sharply. Officials say that the drop is caused by the closure of the Balkan refugee route.

The European Union’s new deal with Turkey is attempting to curb the number of refugees coming into Europe.

“It’s working better than everyone expected,” Altmaier told Funke Media. The deal has received plenty of criticism since its implementation and many would-be refugees have been left in limbo along the coast of Turkey.

“Our goal was and is to clearly reduce the number of refugees,” Altmaier said. “That seems to be happening.”

In the United States, AmeriCorps and Iowa refugee groups partnered in the fall to create an organization called RefugeeRISE, dedicated to helping better train refugees and build Iowa’s workforce. The large majority (75 percent) of refugees to the United States find work within six months and those with access to organizations like RefugeeRISE are more likely to become self-sufficient even faster.

RefugeeRISE pairs one native English speaker with a refugee to help provide services, education, training and self-sufficiency counseling. A bill pending at the Iowa legislature this year would provide $350,000 in state money and an additional $650,000 in federal matching money to keep the organization going. Iowa Senator Janet Petersen (D-Des Moines), who supports the bill, said that the Iowa Senate already approved funding but that the House had yet to act on it.

The post Germany Wants To Double Refugee Deportations appeared first on Generation Progress.