UN report calls for massive actions in wiping out racism

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A top official from the United Nations has tabled a report that roots for radical actions in pursuit of wiping out racism, which targets mostly people with African backgrounds across the world for decades now.

Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, released a report calling for radical measures in dismantling discrimination, with a major target on policing and repatriations being her key focus in the report.

“The status quo is untenable,” Michelle Bachelet said in a statement. “Systemic racism needs a systemic response. There is today a momentous opportunity to achieve a turning point for racial equality and justice.”

The report has 20 pages and is accompanied by a 95-page conference that has evidence from close to 60 countries. Compilation of the report started in May 2020 following the death of George Floyd, who was killed in Minnesota and the release comes days after the officer, Derek Chauvin, was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison.

“We could not find a single example of a state that has fully reckoned with the past or comprehensively accounted for the impacts on the lives of people of African descent today,” said Mona Rishmawi, who supervised the preparation of the report.

The human rights office now recommends for creation of a commission or some other body with a one- or two-year mandate to scrutinize and monitor law enforcement, the New York Times reports.

Also, it urges a reimagining of policing to address racial stereotyping, the militarization of weapons and tactics, and a lack of accountability. The report draws on interviews with more than 340 people and more than 100 written submissions from civil society and academic organizations.

Further, it points to common patterns of experience for people of African descent in Europe, Latin America, and North America contending with poverty and with barriers to education, health care, jobs, and political participation.

But the deaths recorded in the preparation of this report were just “the tip of the iceberg,” Ms. Rishmawi noted. She cited a mother in Latin America who protested “you always talk about George Floyd, every day we have a George Floyd and nobody talks about it.”

The report calls for reparations as an essential step to addressing the suffering inflicted by slavery and colonialism. Monetary compensation was important, the report said, but reparations “should not only be equated with financial compensation.” They could also include formal acknowledgment and apologies, educational reform, and measures to commemorate the experience of people of African descent, it said.

Ms. Bachelet will present the report to the United Nations Human Rights Council next month at the start of a debate that will test the Biden administration’s willingness to engage in racism in a multilateral setting.

In a written statement on Monday, the State Department said it had received a copy of the report that it supports “the amplification of victims’ voices, as well as those of their families and communities in all countries.”

“The United States is committed to treating every person with dignity, upholding human rights, championing opportunity, defending freedom, and strengthening the rule of law,” the statement said. “We recognize that our country has not always lived up to these ideals, particularly for African Americans and other people of color.”

GAROWE ONLINE