A group of United Nations professionals has arrived in the US on a tour that will concentration on racial justice, regulation enforcement and policing.
On Monday, the Specialist Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in the Context of Legislation Enforcement, an unbiased panel appointed by the UN human legal rights council, started its two-week visit to the US.
The panel, which was founded in reaction to widespread outcry adhering to the killing of the Black gentleman George Floyd in 2020 by a white police officer, is established to check out Washington DC, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis and New York Metropolis.
Floyd’s dying was just 1 of many occasions of racist killings by law enforcement in the US but – spurred by strong online video shot by bystanders – it triggered widespread protests throughout The usa, which then distribute internationally.
The UN vacation is to “further transformative transform for racial justice and equality in the context of regulation enforcement for Africans and men and women of African descent”, explained the UN.
In addition to browsing govt officers at federal, state and regional concentrations, the crew will also take a look at legislation enforcement authorities, civil modern society companies and locations of detentions.
“We appear forward to getting initially-hand insight about the lived ordeals of men and women of African descent in the United States, and to offer suggestions to the govt at all stages, to guidance initiatives in combating systemic racism and extreme use of drive, and guarantee accountability and justice,” Juan Méndez, a panel member explained in a statement.
The panel will look at laws and practices bordering the use of force by law enforcement officials and whether or not they are aligned with worldwide human rights requirements.
Activists in Atlanta are in particular wanting ahead to the panel, primarily as many are opposing the construction of a $90m law enforcement and fireplace office teaching center regarded as “Cop City” in a forest south-east of the metropolis.
“Of particular curiosity is that the EMLER selected to identify their hearing in the really town exactly where so lots of are saying ‘No to Cop City’ and in which a youthful era of political prisoners accused of domestic terrorism is at hazard,” an activist in Atlanta instructed the Guardian.
In recent months, various activists protesting against Cop City have been charged with domestic terrorism by prosecutors in what critics call a “complete politicization of the law” and a “judicial pogrom”.
The panel, which will stop by Atlanta on Wednesday, will hear testimonies talking about households afflicted by condition violence, the school-to-jail pipeline, political prisoners and obtain to justice.
“Extrajudicial killings have develop into progressively routine in American policing,” stated Collette Flanagan, the founder of Moms Towards Law enforcement Brutality, whose unarmed son Clinton Allen was killed by law enforcement in Dallas, Texas, in 2013.
“They transpire basically each individual working day. This lethal law enforcement brutality represents a massive human rights violation that falls most closely on individuals of African descent. We welcome the Expert Mechanism to Atlanta in the name of our martyred children. We hope this check out will assistance us move our place to are living up to its obligations below the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other intercontinental human rights agreements,” she included in a statement.
As component of its pay a visit to, the panel will make suggestions to “ensure accessibility to justice, accountability and redress for excessive use of pressure and other human rights violations by regulation enforcement officers against Africans and people of African descent in the United States,” the UN reported.
The panel will then present a report about its pay a visit to to the UN human legal rights council at its 54th session this fall.
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