The International Tribunal for Human Rights Abuses Against Black, Brown and Indigenous Peoples took place from October 23rd to 25th in The Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center in Washington Heights, New York City, also known as Turtle Island, Lenape Land. The main theme of the tribunal was “We Still Charge Genocide” in recognition of “We Charge Genocide: The Crime of Government Against the Negro People” – a 1951 petition to the United Nations that was signed by dozens of personalities, including Dr. WEB DuBois, Claudia Jones, Harry Haywood and Paul Robeson.
International Legal Panel holds a press conference at the UN on October 25th to present the verdict. WW PHOTO: Monica Moorehead
The 2021 indictment targets the United States, represented by its President, the State Department, state and state law enforcement agencies, and other government agencies. The following is an edited version of the findings presented at a press conference at the United Nations Church Center on October 25th. Go to the Spirit of Mandela Facebook page at tinyurl.com/75syh4px for video testimonials, results, and judgments. WW will write about the five charges, including testimony in future issues.
background
The panel of jurists heard testimonies highlighting the millions upon millions of indigenous and African peoples who were murdered, disappeared, and almost exterminated in a period from 1492 to the present day. In addition, the witnesses and the prosecution argued that the injustice was historical and deliberate, with colonization, racism, militarism, imperialism, materialism, criminalization, patriarchy, neo-colonialism, and internal colonialism being part of the larger process now taking place in the medical and digital Apartheid manifests itself, chemical warfare, environmental violence and racism, sale and a pandemic of accessible weapons and drugs – with the majority of gun violence perpetrated by police and security forces with false claims of maintaining law and order.
Statements have been made testifying to new forms of colonialism including the prison industrial complex, the military industrial complex and the commercialization of our health and the privatization / commodification of all social services.
The testimony contains substantial evidence of the erasure of stories; Distortion and cultural embezzlement add to and exacerbate the attempted invisibility and denial of the basic humanity of people. The profound implications of all of these realities go beyond obliteration and attempting to exterminate the lives of blacks, browns, and indigenous peoples. Hence, as one witness stated, “the colonization of the spirit and understanding continues to this day”.
The testimonies of this tribunal reaffirm the traditional wisdom and knowledge of black, brown and indigenous peoples. Strong evidence has been presented of the indomitable, unbreakable resistance and resilience of the struggle of peoples for justice and dignity. In the face of outrageous human rights violations and crimes against humanity, this spirit of collective survival has prevailed.
The 2021 International Tribunal for US Human Rights Abuses Against Black, Brown and Indigenous Peoples was initiated by a US coalition called In the Spirit of Mandela. Her own recognized legacy, built on We Charge Genocide efforts from 1951 to the present day, rests on the idea that any study of US human rights must be done in an international context. The Jurists Board is an independent body composed of legal scholars, human rights activists, activists, and community leaders.
Using criminal genocide and other tools, the panel met to hear and review the testimony organized by the Spirit of Mandela Legal Team. Although the defendants were informed, they did not respond to the indictment or the indictment, nor did they appear asked to defend themselves.
procedure
The following is a summary and preliminary presentation of the testimony.
Police killings
Testimony was murdered about an alarming pattern and practice by the police who murder black, brown and indigenous peoples with impunity. We were told that a recent commission of inquiry found that “blacks are 3.5 times more likely than whites to be killed by the police if blacks do not attack or have no weapons”. There is no itemized data for other peoples.
Mass incarceration
Sharonne Salaam, mother of Yusef Salaam – one of the falsely accused and detained youth at Central Park 5 – testifies on October 23 of her son’s trauma to her family. WW PHOTO: Monica Moorehead
Testimony emphasized that in the case of the US Constitutional Law, the 13th Amendment, while promising the abolition of slavery, actually created an exception that incentivized the incarceration of people of African descent and other peoples. In addition, they argued that a school-to-prison pipeline was set in motion by the racist policies and programs of the US federal and state governments. In a testimonial it says: “The law is used as a weapon of war” against black, brown and indigenous peoples. Further testimony suggests that there is a US policy of war on poverty, wars on drugs, wars on terror, and others – which amounts to a war on blacks, browns, and indigenous peoples as they disproportionately criminalize their youth and communities.
Political prisoners / prisoners of war
Arguments were put forward that criminalized legitimate political struggles, particularly by blacks, browns and indigenous peoples. One witness testified that it was like an “intelligence program on steroids”. Several witnesses testified that there is ample evidence of decades of solitary confinement in relation to traditional torture techniquesit is so far beyond the United Nations’ established definitions of torture that they defy any modern standard of humane government.
Additional testimony was presented arguing that decades of imprisonment were given to those detained for their political beliefs. A witness said: “The US is the only industrial nation in the world that denies the existence of political prisoners.”
Oscar López Rivera, Puerto Rican freedom fighter and former political prisoner, testified before the tribunal on October 23. WW PHOTO: Monica Moorehead
Environmental racism
There have been testimonies arguing the effects of environmental violence. They claimed that the climate crisis disproportionately affects black, brown and indigenous peoples and represents environmental violence. The prosecution alleged that there is deliberate and callous poisoning of land, water, air and soil that reflects the appreciation of profits to the peoples that threatens the survival of the planet and most devastates the lives of blacks, browns and indigenous peoples .
Public health inequalities
The testimony highlighted deep public health inequalities that encompassed both physical and psychological manifestations. Additional allegations have been made that the COVID-19 pandemic and “insufficient and incompetent federal response to this crisis” have exacerbated the disparate effects of structural racism on access to health care.
In addition, there have been testimonies of indifference to the suffering of groups of people who, because of the US health care profit model, are seen as expendable and leave the most vulnerable. The prosecution argued that from forced sterilization to “food deserts” and chemical contamination, from toxic stress due to the environment one lives in to criminalization of mental illness, black, brown and indigenous people are neglected and excluded from any illusion Human right to health.
Although these crimes are well documented, they have been recognized, corrected, and dealt with less often, with some being very far from public knowledge.
judgement
Despite the need for further consultations on the extensive submissions and documents of various experts, an in-depth analysis by the lawyers showed that the proceedings sufficiently covered the scope and elements of all five charges as legally binding and thus legitimized.
The lawyers also state that the grounds for each of the five charges, based on the extensive testimonies and expert reports, formed the basis for a successful intervention.
A full and detailed assessment of our results on these points will follow. Each legal minority position is being developed, with collective consensus being asserted on each point, to further advance our recommendations for remedy, redress and future action.
After hearing the testimony of numerous victims of police racism, mass incarceration, environmental racism, public health inequalities and political prisoners / prisoners of war, along with the expert testimony and graphs, as well as the extensive documentation that is in the record, the legal panel holds the US and theirs Subdivisions in all five points for GUILTY. We find reasons that genocide was committed.
Signed October 25th, 2021, Legal Advisory Board
United Nations Church Center
Boss: Your Honorable Magdalene Moonsamy (South Africa), former Member of Parliament (ANC)
Deputy Head: Wilma E. Reveron Collazo (Puerto Rico), long-time member and director, Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rican Bar Association)
Dr. Vickie Casanova-Willis (USA), Executive Director, US Human Rights Network; Past President, National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL); Founding member of Black People Against Police Torture
Sherly Fabre (Haiti / USA), representative of the International Union of Reconciliation of the United Nations; Member, Muslim Peace Fellowship / Community of Living Traditions
Professor Mireille Fanon Mendès-France (France), former Chair of the United Nations Working Group on People of African Descent; Former Commissioner of the International Commission of Inquiry 2020 (systemic racist police violence against Americans of African descent); Co-chair of the Frantz Fanon Foundation
Dr. Alexander Hinton (USA), Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University; UNESCO Chair in Genocide Prevention
Chairman Brian Moskwetah Weeden (Mashpee Wampanoag), Chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe; Co-President / Trustee of the United National Indian Tribal Youth (UNITY)
Binalakshmi “Bina” Nepram (Manipur / Northeast India), founder and director, Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network; Founding Director, Global Alliance of Indigenous Peoples, Gender Justice and Peace
International Tribunal finds U.S. guilty of crimes against humanity