Delaware Human and Civil Rights Commission

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Date(s) - March 15, 2023
6:30 pm - 7:45 pm

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Join us for a zoom on March 15th to learn more about the Delaware Human and Civil Rights Commission.  Commissioner Martin ‘Marty’ Rendon will have a conversation with us about the role of the Delaware Human and Civil Rights Commission.   Commissioner Rendon is also the chair of the legislative committee and will discuss the role of the commission in the current legislative session.

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About Martin Rendon

Martin “Marty” Rendon is a Commissioner on the Delaware Human and Civil Rights
Commission and chairs the Commission’s Legislative Committee. He was appointed to the
Commission in 2019 by Governor John Carney. As Chair of the Commission’s Legislative
Committee, Marty has lent the Commission’s support to Delaware legislation relating to issues
such as the right-to-counsel for tenants, no-excuse absentee voting, Constitutional protection
for the LGBTQ community and people with disabilities, prohibiting discrimination based on
sources of income, a homeless bill of rights, reform of the State’s expungement law, repeal of
loitering and panhandling laws, alignment of the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law with
Federal protections, legislation to address hate crimes, transparency for law enforcement
disciplinary records, and clarification of the State law banning discrimination based on religion
in public accommodations.

As Legislative Committee Chair, he successfully worked with the Delaware Senate and
House to pass a bill to rename the State Human Relations Commission as the Delaware Human
and Civil Rights Commission and the Division of Human Relations as the Division of Human and
Civil Rights. The bill passed both chambers unanimously and was signed into law by Governor
Carney on June 14, 2022.

In 2018, Marty retired from working in Washington for 25 years as Vice President for
Public Policy and Advocacy for UNICEF USA. In running Congressional relations for UNICEF
(United Nations Children’s Fund), he succeeded in getting Congress to approve the funding
requested by UNICEF every year. Under his leadership, UNICEF received over $2.9 billion in
regular resource contributions from the U.S. Government for its programs to save and improve
the lives of the world’s children. He also advanced a wide range of policy initiatives on global
issues affecting the survival and well-being of vulnerable children, including child and maternal
health, clean water and sanitation, basic education, children caught in emergencies, child
soldiers, child trafficking, child labor, violence against women and children, and rights for
children. At the same time, he led UNICEF USA’s efforts to build a network of advocates and
activists across the country to fight to make children a U.S. foreign policy priority.
Prior to working at UNICEF, Marty worked for over two decades on Capitol Hill, including
serving as Legislative Director to four Members of Congress, working for eight years on the
Associate Staff of the House Rules Committee, and capping his Hill career as Staff Director of
the House Select Committee on Hunger. His first job on Capitol Hill was as a paid intern to Sen.
George McGovern (D-SD).

At the Select Committee on Hunger, he oversaw the drafting of the “Freedom from
Want Act,” a blueprint to fight hunger in the United States and around the world. While he was
Staff Director, the Select Committee on Hunger received the 1992 Silver World Food Day Medal
from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Throughout his years as a
Congressional aide, he focused on global humanitarian and human rights initiatives. He served

as the principal House staff contact for Congressional Friends of Human Rights Monitors. He
was invited to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo in 1996 for his Congressional human
rights work on East Timor (Timor Leste).

Marty has a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Georgetown University
School of Foreign Service and a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown Law Center. He spent his
Junior Year at the University of Madrid. He also has a diploma and certification from the
National Personal Training Institute and worked for six years as a part-time personal trainer for
the Prince William County Virginia Park Authority. Marty grew up in Springfield, Ohio. He was
Valedictorian of his class at Catholic Central High School and admitted to that school’s Hall of
Honor in 2014.

He served on the Board of Delaware Stonewall PAC from 2020 to 2022.
He is a professed Secular Franciscan and Vice Minister of the St. Clare Secular Franciscan
Fraternity at St. Edmond’s Catholic Church in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Marty moved permanently to his second home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware in 2018
following his retirement. He has owned property in Sussex County since 1985 and has lived at
his current residence since 2005.

 

 

 

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