HUMAN RIGHTS Carmelyn P. Malalis, Commissioner/Chair
CITY COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS | Page 99
WHAT WE DO
The New York City Commission
on Human Rights (CCHR) enforces
the New York City Human Rights
Law (NYCHRL), educates the public
about their rights and responsibilities
under the NYCHRL and encourages
positive community relations. The
NYCHRL prohibits discrimination
in employment, housing, and
public accommodations and is
one of the most comprehensive
antidiscrimination laws in the country.
CCHR meets this mission through
its law enforcement, community
outreach, media and policy efforts.
CCHR’s Law Enforcement Bureau
(LEB) impartially investigates alleged
violations of the law, negotiates
and resolves matters, provides early
intervention in cases of on-going
discrimination, retaliation, or the
need for accommodations and,
where appropriate, tries cases before
an independent administrative
judge. Mediation services are offered
through the independent Office of
Mediation and Conflict Resolution.
CCHR’s Community Relations Bureau
(CRB) educates the public on their
rights by building deep community
relationships through roundtable
discussions, workshops, trainings
and other gatherings. The CRB also
engages with the small business
community, including chambers of
commerce, merchant associations
and business improvement districts
to facilitate compliance with the
NYCHRL. CCHR’s Office of the Chair
is the agency’s policy, legislative, and
adjudicatory hub. It convenes public
hearings, publishes reports on key
issues of the day, implements new
legal protections, publishes legal
guidance, issues final decisions
and orders and oversees media
campaigns.
FOCUS ON EQUITY
Throughout Fiscal 2020, CCHR continued to directly address equity and issues
of particular importance to communities that have experienced interpersonal,
institutional, and structural forms of oppression. Fiscal 02020 brought new crises
that exacerbated longstanding realities. The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately
impacted Black, Latinx and immigrant New Yorkers and laid bare disparities in
access to basic needs like healthcare, housing and jobs. In the midst of the crisis,
encouraged by racist and xenophobic rhetoric from the White House, violence,
hate speech and harassment were inflicted upon Asian New Yorkers. This was
followed by protests against the devastating impacts of structural racism on Black
people and called attention to the police violence in Black communities and other
communities of color. Under these circumstances, the NYCHRL’s protections are
essential. In March 2020, CCHR focused resources on responding to inquiries
related to COVID-19, including incidents of anti-Asian bias, by creating a COVID-19
Response Team and through a multi-lingual public education media campaign. In
June 2020, as Black Lives Matter protests were sweeping the nation demanding
governmental accountability for violence against Black communities, CCHR
released a report on the experiences of Black New Yorkers with anti-Black racism,
based on focus groups conducted in the spring of 2018 with nearly 200 AfricanAmerican, Afro-Caribbean, African and Afro-Latinx New Yorkers from across the
five boroughs. The report shares accounts from these Black New Yorkers about
how racism has impacted their experiences with law enforcement, their attempts
to secure housing, their interactions with educational and health institutions and
many other areas of life. Following an increase in anti-Semitic harassment and
discrimination, CCHR launched a public awareness campaign in February 2020,
the first of its kind nationwide, to combat religious harassment and discrimination
and to underscore the City’s support for Jewish communities. Consistent with
prior campaigns, the campaign also sought to provide visibility to the diversity of
the City’s faith communities. CCHR also issued groundbreaking legal enforcement
guidance defining discrimination on the basis of perceived or actual immigration
status and national origin in response to the impact of the federal government’s
threats of detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants. Like prior
guidance, this was hailed as a model by human rights advocates and received
national and international attention.
OUR SERVICES AND GOALS
SERVICE 1 Enforce the NYC Human Rights Law.
Goal 1a Investigate, prosecute and resolve complaints of discrimination,
discriminatory harassment, and bias-based profiling in a timely and
efficient manner.
SERVICE 2 Educate the community on the NYC Human Rights Law.
Goal 2a Increase community awareness of the NYCHRL through knowyour-rights presentations aimed at the general public; know-yourobligations presentations aimed at housing providers, employers
and small businesses; and other initiatives.
Page 100 | MAYOR’S MANAGEMENT REPORT
HOW WE PERFORMED IN FISCAL 2020
SERVICE 1 Enforce the NYC Human Rights Law.
Goal 1a Investigate, prosecute and resolve complaints of discrimination, discriminatory harassment, and biasbased profiling in a timely and efficient manner.
This Fiscal Year marks a number of challenges and milestones in CCHR’s strategic enforcement and resolution efforts. At the
start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commission was informed of an increase in bias-based harassment and discrimination,
particularly involving anti-Asian discrimination. As a result, the
Commission launched a COVID-19 Response Team, comprised
of dedicated Law Enforcement and Community Relations staff
members with specific expertise that provide rapid response
and strategically engage with impacted communities. Since its
creation in March 2020, through the end of Fiscal 2020, the
Response Team responded to 376 inquiries. These responses
include commencing investigations, conducting early or
emergency interventions, informing New Yorkers about their
rights under the NYCHRL and providing information, resources
and referrals for inquirers who raise issues not within the
Commission’s jurisdiction.
Overall, inquiries from the public increased for the third straight
year to 10,015, surpassing Fiscal 2019’s total by 2 percent and
525 complaints were filed this fiscal year, compared to 792
last year. CCHR successfully intervened in 406 matters without
filing a complaint, compared to last year’s high of 537 in Fiscal
2019 and surpassing annual totals since at least Fiscal 2010.
And in a time when many similar human rights enforcement agencies were beset with COVID-19 related challenges that
negatively impacted their enforcement operations, CCHR reached several milestones in its multi-year efforts to resolve
enforcement cases more efficiently: CCHR closed 1,066 complaints, an increase of 8 percent from Fiscal 2019, the second
consecutive year CCHR has closed more cases than were filed and the fourth consecutive year in row of year-over-year
increases in the number of case closures. The number of open cases pending at the agency decreased to 1,165, a 31 percent
drop from Fiscal 2019 and the lowest since Fiscal 2015. The average number of days that open complaints remained open
dropped to 515 days, the lowest average since Fiscal 2017 and the first year-over-year decrease since Fiscal 2015. As part
of the Commission’s strategic enforcement strategy, CCHR’s testing program conducted tests of 1,424 entities this Fiscal
Year compared to 900 entities tested in Fiscal 2019.
The Office of Mediation and Conflict Resolution (OMCR) resolved 43 cases in Fiscal 2020, compared to 37 in Fiscal 2019,
setting a new record and accounting for an aggregate recovery (excluding non-monetary relief) of $2.6 million compared
to $1.2 million in Fiscal 2019. The average time from the acceptance of a case by OMCR to its closure was 183 days,
compared to 186 days in Fiscal 2019.
In November 2019, CCHR announced its first settlement and successful resolution of reports of discriminatory grooming
policies enforced against Black employees following the groundbreaking Fiscal 2019 release of legal guidance on
discrimination on the basis of hair. The settlement included novel provisions consistent with CCHR’s adherence to principles
of restorative justice, including a requirement that staff at the salon in question be trained to style natural hair, that a new
internship program be established to create new opportunities for stylists from underrepresented groups at the salon, that
salon leadership complete 35 hours of community service with a racial justice organization and that the salon contract with
experts on race discrimination based on hair to provide a series of trainings.
Finally, CCHR obtained $7.5 million in compensatory damages and civil penalties, the highest amount on record, and
surpassing last year’s total of $6.1 million by $1.4 million. Despite the difficulties of transitioning to a telework environment
in the midst of a pandemic and while implementing increased restorative justice remedies, the agency set a record in
damages and civil penalties for the sixth year in a row.
FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20
Complaints filed vs. Complaints closed
792
525
986
1,066
908
336
806
536
805
730
Complaints filed Complaints closed
CITY COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS | Page 101
Performance Indicators
Actual Target Trend
FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY20 FY21 5-Year
Desired
Direction
Inquiries received NA NA 9,513 9,804 10,015 * * NA *
Matters initiated NA NA 1,576 2,319 1,307 * * NA *
Pre-complaint resolutions 200 310 193 537 406 * * Up Up
Modifications for accessibility for people with disabilites 191 307 90 174 72 * * Down *
« Complaints filed 908 806 805 792 525 * * Down *
Complaints closed 336 536 730 986 1,066 * * Up *
– Complaints closed (%) - no probable cause determination 5% 7% 4% 3% 1% * * Down *
– Complaints closed (%) - probable cause determination 6% 4% 5% 7% 23% * * Up *
– Complaints closed (%) - administrative cause 62% 65% 68% 60% 51% * * Down *
« Average age of complaint caseload (days) 340 468 553 576 515 ò ò Up Down
Complaints pending by age - less than one year 837 728 721 668 416 * * Down Down
« Critical Indicator “NA” Not Available ñò Directional Target * None
SERVICE 2 Educate the community on the NYC Human Rights Law.
Goal 2a Increase community awareness of the NYCHRL through know-your-rights presentations aimed at the
general public; know-your-obligations presentations aimed at housing providers, employers and small
businesses; and other initiatives.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced CCHR to reimagine its education and outreach efforts. CCHR found creative ways to
increase awareness and understanding of the NYCHRL by moving to virtual platforms. Despite the pandemic, CCHR
expanded its reach to serve 99,858 New Yorkers in Fiscal 2020, 2.5 percent more than in Fiscal 2019, across 1,481
conferences, workshops, and trainings.
In response to an increase in bias incidents due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CCHR worked with the Center for Anti-Violence
Education to host 13 bystander intervention trainings which reached 438 New Yorkers. These bystander intervention
trainings were conducted with support from community-based organizations who work with the City’s Asian, Black,
Latinx, and other communities. Bystander intervention trainings were hosted in English and Mandarin, with more language
capacity planned for Fiscal 2021.
In addition, CCHR hosted five Bias & Hate Crimes Reporting Town Halls, in partnership with sister agencies and various
District Attorneys’ Offices, which reached over 2,000 New Yorkers. These town halls were a direct response to community
asks and allowed CCHR to educate attendees on the differences between bias incidents and hate crimes, and the process
once such an incident is reported. As COVID-19 related bias and hate inquiries grew, CCHR continued to host virtual knowyour-rights forums and town halls to add to our anti-stigma work.
CCHR’s Bias Response Team responded to 467 bias incidents, a 99 percent increase compared to Fiscal 2019: prior to the
COVID-19 pandemic, responses exceeded Fiscal 2019 levels by 58 percent and rose further from March through July 2020.
On December 17, 2019, CCHR’s Bias Response Unit organized a Day of Visibility in response to anti-Muslim graffiti at the
Ditmars Boulevard and Steinway Street MTA bus stop. CCHR partnered with Council Member Costa Constantinides and
Page 102 | MAYOR’S MANAGEMENT REPORT
Senator Michael Gianaris to hand out literature in response to the incident. Staff interacted with over 200 Community
members and informed them about their rights against discrimination and harassment.
In October 2019, CCHR hosted “400 Years Later: Reckoning with Our Legacy of Slavery and Charting an Anti-Racist Future
in NYC,” a forum exploring the history of slavery in New York and discussing the current impacts of anti-Black racism in
the five boroughs. Later in the fiscal year, CCHR celebrated Juneteenth with the Weeksville Heritage Center and presented
workshops on combating discrimination based on race and color.
In February, CCHR hosted Your Power, Your Rights: New York City Youth in Action, which featured the launch of its Youth
for Equity & Solidarity (YES) Council. The Council seeks to identify young leaders who can advise the Commission on how
to expand its engagement with young people. Though the inaugural cohort of YES Council Members will be announced
in Fiscal 2021, along with the February announcement came both a revamp and expansion of CCHR’s youth portfolio. This
included the release of CCHR’s Stories For All: A Human Rights Reading List, highlighting authors, characters, and stories that
tackle the issues and experiences facing diverse communities. This reading list is intended as a reference guide for parents
and educators for young people age pre-K through 12th grade. CCHR continued to offer workshops to schools and youth
such as Empowering Young Women, Discrimination: Gender, Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation and Peer Mediation, as
well as continuing to conduct student assemblies. CCHR provided 300 school and youth-based trainings in Fiscal 2020,
despite the difficulty of remote learning in the last four months of the fiscal year.
Performance Indicators
Actual Target Trend
FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY20 FY21 5-Year
Desired
Direction
Conferences, workshops and training sessions 2,397 2,947 3,127 3,060 1,481 3,000 3,000 Down Up
Youth-based training sessions conducted 79 173 186 266 300 250 250 Up Up
People served 38,435 69,087 80,454 97,395 99,858 80,000 80,000 Up Up
Responses to bias-based incidents NA NA 146 235 467 * * NA *
« Critical Indicator “NA” Not Available ñò Directional Target * None
Average wait time to speak with a customer service agent
(minutes) 11 9 6 6 3 * * Down Down
CORE customer experience rating (0-100) 100 98 99 NA 100 * * NA Up
« Critical Indicator “NA” Not Available ñò Directional Target * None
CITY COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS | Page 103
AGENCY RESOURCES
Resource Indicators Actual¹ Plan²
FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY20 FY21 5yr Trend
Expenditures ($000,000)³ $8.8 $10.4 $12.8 $13.3 $12.9 $14.4 $13.0 Up
Personnel 89 108 142 131 128 164 139 Up
Overtime paid ($000) $7 $5 $11 $3 $15 $15 $15 Up
¹Actual financial amounts for the current fiscal year are not yet final. Final fiscal year actuals, from the Comptroller’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, will be reported
in the next PMMR. Refer to the “Indicator Definitions” at nyc.gov/mmr for details. ²Authorized Budget Level
³Expenditures include all funds “NA” - Not Available * None
SPENDING AND BUDGET INFORMATION
Where possible, the relationship between an agency’s goals and its expenditures and planned resources, by budgetary unit
of appropriation (UA), is shown in the ‘Applicable MMR Goals’ column. Each relationship is not necessarily exhaustive or
exclusive. Any one goal may be connected to multiple UAs, and any UA may be connected to multiple goals.
Unit of Appropriation
Expenditures
FY191
($000,000)
Modified Budget
FY202
($000,000) Applicable MMR Goals3
Personal Services - Total $10.9 $10.5
001 - Personal Services $5.6 $5.2 All
003 - Community Development $5.2 $5.3 All
Other Than Personal Services - Total $2.4 $2.4
002 - Other Than Personal Services $0.5 $0.6 All
004 - Community Development $1.9 $1.8 All
Agency Total $13.3 $14.4
1
Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for the Fiscal Year ended June 30, 2019. Includes all funds. 2
City of New York Adopted Budget for Fiscal 2020, as of June
2020.Includes all funds. 3Refer to agency goals listed at front of chapter. “NA” Not Available * None
NOTEWORTHY CHANGES, ADDITIONS OR DELETIONS !
None.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
For more information on the agency, please visit: www.nyc.gov/cchr.