The organization 's leaders maintained that " some U.S. laws , such as the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 , which limits the amount of time a family can receive federal assistance , violate Articles 23 , 25 and 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . Those articles guarantee , respectively , the right to work for a living wage under humane conditions ; the right to adequate food , housing , medical care and social security ; and the right to education . " Starting in June 1998 , KWRU led the New Freedom Bus Tour , which traveled across the country , gathering stories of human rights violations to present as a petition to the United Nations . " Under the banner ' Freedom from Unemployment , Hunger and Homelessness , ' the KWRU team collected additional evidence on the negative impact of welfare reform and held educational sessions teaching the poor about their economic rights . " ( A second such bus tour was organized by the PPEHRC in November – December 2002 , which traveled to 27 cities to record human rights violations . ) In the late 1990s , Honkala started another nonprofit , the Poor People 's Economic Human Rights Campaign , of which she became National Coordinator . The PPEHRC represents " a network of over 40 poor people 's organizations from across the U.S. " One commentator has written that the campaign " is the only national movement to come out of welfare reform that has been organized by poor people , and not their advocates . " This organization was formed in direct response to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act ( PRWORA ) of 1996 ( also known as the Welfare Reform Act ) , signed into law by Democratic President Bill Clinton , which she and her allies claim hurts recipients of welfare . The organization 's mission statement reads , " The Poor People 's Economic Human Rights Campaign is committed to uniting the poor across color lines as the leadership base for a broad movement to abolish poverty . We work to accomplish this through advancing economic human rights as named in the universal declaration of human rights — such as the rights to food , housing , health , education , communication and a living wage job . " Part of the purpose of the organization is to make homelessness and the homeless visible , in order to force politicians to act . Honkala claims that the latter prefer that the homeless remain invisible , so they wo n't have to address the problem . In a speech , Honkala said : " That 's what the authorities are saying to you : ' Go hide ! Go be under a bridge , or ... hide under a bench , and we wo n't arrest you , we wo n't do anything to you , because you will be quiet ! ' " As Honkala declared , " When you have nothing , you still have your voice . " In October 1999 , PPEHRC organized a month-long March of the Americas , from Washington , DC , to the United Nations in New York . Participants in the march included low-income families from the US , Canada and Latin America . The group " marched 15 miles a day for 32 days , sleeping in tent cities , churches and community centers at night , and holding press conferences and protests in local communities . " In July 2000 , a PPEHRC march for the opening day of the Republican Party 's National Convention in Philadelphia drew 10,000 homeless and poor people from around the country . ( Of the several protest marches during that convention , this was the only one denied a permit by city authorities . ) In November 2000 , at the historic Riverside Church in Manhattan in New York City , the PPEHRC held a " Poor People 's World Summit to End Poverty , " consisting of several hundred activists from some 30 countries , to share " experiences and work to build an international movement for economic human rights drawing explicitly on international treaties . " On July 4 , 2003 , Philadelphia held a celebration for the opening of the National Constitution Center , a new facility housing the Liberty Bell . Poor and homeless families from the city held a peaceful protest to demand their economic rights . " As the demonstrators marched toward Constitution Center single-file , carrying their own mattresses and led by children , park rangers , federal guards , and city police formed lines to prevent the families from approaching . Singing ' We Shall Not Be Moved , ' the demonstrators locked arms and refused to leave the sidewalk . Protest leaders Honkala and Galen Tyler had prepared a ' Declaration of Economic Human Rights ' to present at the Center . As they moved toward the Center , police moved to stop them , threw them to the ground , handcuffed them , and placed them under arrest ... Honkala was charged with one first-degree felony and four other felony counts . Police officers claimed that Honkala had struck one of them in the chest . However , a video taken at the time clearly shows Honkala carrying a mattress and being struck by the officer ... all the charges were subsequently withdrawn by the District Attorney 's office . " In August 2004 , Honkala marched with the PPEHRC in New York City ( without a permit ) to protest President Bush and the Republican National Convention ( RNC ) and to publicly call for greater attention by the government to the needs of the poor and homeless
Republican Party 's National Convention
2000 Republican National Convention
Cheri Honkala