The National Women’s Law Center and the National Network for Arab American Communities led a joint comment in response to a proposal by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Health and Human Services to revise its complaint form. The comment, submitted on behalf of 53 organizations, explains why the proposed changes are harmful, unwarranted, and unjustified, and it raises serious concerns about the secretive process that OCR has used to try to push these revisions through.

For many people who experience discrimination, filing a complaint with OCR may be the only practical option to address it. But the changes that OCR is proposing to the form used to initiate this process would worsen barriers people face to filing complaints, create confusion about their rights, and deter many from submitting a complaint at all. Among other impacts, the proposed changes would particularly harm people experiencing sex discrimination, especially discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation; those who have faced discrimination based on limited English proficiency; and Middle Eastern and North African individuals.

The comment and list of signatories can be found here.