UN Makes Landmark Call to Address Systemic Racism

(Geneva) – United Nations member countries in the UN Human Rights Council should take decisive action to implement the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recommendations on systemic racism and police violence against Africans and people of African descent, Human Rights Watch said today. In the Commissioner’s report, dated June 28, 2021, at the request of the Human Rights Council following the murder of George Floyd by police in the United States on Justice and Equality for Africans and People of African Descent Worldwide.

The Human Rights Council should heed the High Commissioner’s call by establishing a robust and independent UN mechanism mandated to investigate systemic racism in law enforcement in the United States and around the world, Human Rights Watch said. The mandate should cover the issues the High Commissioner examined, including law enforcement abuses in the context of the legacy of colonialism and transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, governments’ responses to peaceful protests against racial discrimination, and the need for accountability and redress for the victims of racially motivated police violence.

“George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many others who have died by the police, other blacks who have faced systemic discrimination, and racial justice protesters around the world are calling for action, not just words, from governments and UN bodies,” said Nicole Austin-Hillery , Executive director of the US program at Human Rights Watch. “If the UN Human Rights Council put in place a strong and independent mechanism to combat systemic racism and police violence in the US and around the world, it would take decisive action with meaning.”

The report’s findings are based on consultations with over 340 people, including family members of blacks killed by police, and 110 written submissions from governments around the world and non-governmental organizations, some of the most significant efforts by any UN agency in recent years to to consult communities directly affected and focus on their perspectives.

On the main findings and recommendations in the High Commissioner’s report:

• Police violence against people of African descent in the United States and around the world has been linked to systemic racism in health, education, economic opportunities, and housing.
• Police violence is facilitated by criminal laws, policies, and practices of surveillance and policing that disproportionately expose black people in the United States and elsewhere to repeated, often unnecessary, non-fatal contact with the police, particularly in the context of the “war on” drugs or gang related Operations that may escalate or lead to new incidents of police violence and killings.
• Countries should invest in efforts to end discrimination in education, employment, health care and housing, and to reduce gun violence, rather than focusing primarily on arrests and prosecutions. They should also strengthen police accountability, find alternatives to policing, especially in education and dealing with situations involving people with mental illness, and reform criminal law.
• Government agencies should recognize and remedy the lasting damage of enslavement and settler colonialism by providing “adequate, effective and prompt” reparation for past and ongoing damage through extensive and extensive consultations with affected individuals and communities.

The High Commissioner prepared the report after the Human Rights Council held an urgent debate in June 2020 on racially motivated human rights abuses, systemic racism, police brutality and violence against peaceful protests following the police murder of George Floyd. During the debate, UN experts called on the Council to launch an independent international investigation into issues of systemic racism and police violence in the United States, as well as another investigation with a global focus. Human Rights Watch joined a broad coalition of families of police brutality victims and civil society groups around the world in responding to the call.

Police killings in the United States have continued unabated since that debate. Structural racism has exacerbated the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States, while many of the police reforms under consideration at the federal level are only half-measures in how the US House of Representatives passed the Justice in Policing Act while wider reforms are needed .

However, in April 2021, the U.S. Congress made groundbreaking strides when the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee passed HR 40, a bill to establish a federal commission to investigate the legacy of slavery in the U.S. and its ongoing harm, and to prepare proposals for reparations. The bill has yet to be passed and enacted by the House and Senate. When legislative paths fail, President Joe Biden’s administration should, by executive order, set up an HR 40-style commission to signal a genuine commitment to racial justice in the United States, Human Rights Watch said.

In her new report, the High Commissioner recommends that the Council increase its close engagement on these issues through the establishment of a “specific, time-bound mechanism” or by strengthening the capacity of an existing mechanism to examine racial justice in the context of law enforcement. These recommendations echo previous statements by the High Commissioner calling for concrete action “to reduce systemic racism and police brutality against Africans and people of African descent and to promote accountability and redress for victims”. The Biden administration has said it is determined to tackle racial inequalities and the systemic racism that remains deeply rooted in the United States.

“The Biden government, as well as state and local authorities in the United States should know that the world is watching whether they take serious steps to combat racism and police violence,” said Austin-Hillery. “At the same time, blacks in the United States, those who speak out in protest against racial injustice, and all victims of racism and police violence around the world are watching global institutions like the UN Human Rights Council take concrete action.” End racial discrimination. You shouldn’t be disappointed by the Council. “