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THE
COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

OFFICE OF COUNCIL MEMBER STEPHEN LEVIN

250 Broadway, 1735

New York,
NY 10007

212-788-7348

http://council.nyc.gov

**For Immediate Release**                                                                                                       
July 8, 2010

Contact: James Fairbanks
(718) 588-7500

CITY
COUNCILMEMBER FOSTER INTRODUCES INTRO 283

TO
ELIMINATE AND PREVENT DISCRIMINATION IN CITY GOVERNMENT

Today Councilmember Helen
Diane Foster announced that she has introduced Intro 283 before the City
Council to help eliminate and prevent discrimination in City government and
City agencies. 

The purpose of Intro 283
is “to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to identifying,
eliminating and preventing discrimination, and promoting human rights in
governmental operations.”

Intro 283 is called the
Human Rights Government in Operations Audit Law or the Human Rights GOAL Law.

NYC law prohibits
discrimination based on race, color, gender, sexual orientation, age,
ethnicity, disability, language, religion, immigration status, political
affiliation, and national birth.  The intent of this human rights G.O.A.L.
legislation is to institutionalize proactive measures to identify, eliminate,
and prevent discrimination that may be systemic in the policies, practices,
programs, services, budgets, contracts, and employment of city government.

The Human Rights G.O.A.L.
legislation requires that each city agency or department conduct a local human
rights audit and a human rights analysis to identify discrimination in its
administration, and to develop an affirmative human rights action plan to
remedy  such discrimination.  Such audit, analysis, and action plan is to be
submitted in a report to the Mayor, the City Council, and a human rights task
force.  The human rights task force shall approve the specific measures and
timetables for remedy of the action plan of a city agency.  The task force
shall consist of five mayoral-appointed voting members and three non-voting
members from the EEOC of the Dept. of Citywide Administrative Services, the
Human Rights Commission, and the Equal Employment Practices Committee.  There
shall be opportunity for community involvement such as public hearings.

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