Geneva, Switzerland:
The UN rights chief known as Monday for systemic racism against black persons to be promptly dismantled about the world to keep away from repeating outrages like the killing of George Floyd.
In a report triggered by the death of Floyd, who was murdered by a white US police officer, Michelle Bachelet stated the dehumanisation of persons of African descent had fed a culture of tolerance for racial discrimination and violence.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights set out a 4-point agenda for transformative adjust on racial justice and equality, and urged states to implement it.
Bachelet’s suggestions incorporate reparations for historical racism, as effectively as funding for groups like Black Lives Matter.
“The status quo is untenable,” stated the former Chilean president Bachelet, who presented her 23-web page report to the UN Human Rights Council.
“Systemic racism needs a systemic response” to dismantle centuries of entrenched discrimination and violence, she stated.
“We need a transformative approach that tackles the interconnected areas that drive racism, and lead to repeated, wholly avoidable tragedies like the death of George Floyd.”
The report comes 3 days soon after former policeman Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison for murdering Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020.
Footage of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for almost 10 minutes, indifferent to the dying man’s groans, sparked international racial justice protests below the banner “Black Lives Matter”.
‘Dehumanisation’
After Floyd’s death, the UN Human Rights Office was mandated in June last year to make a extensive report on systemic racism, human rights violations by law enforcement agencies against black persons, and government responses to peaceful anti-racism protests.
It also covered accountability and redress for victims.
The report’s evaluation was based on on line consultations with more than 340 persons, most of them black.
Bachelet’s workplace received info on more than 250 deaths of Africans and persons of African descent in Europe and the Americas, at least 190 of which had been at the hands of law enforcement officials.
In lots of circumstances, info suggests the victims “did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury”, the report stated.
The investigation stated that in lots of nations in Europe and the Americas, persons of African descent disproportionately live in poverty and face significant barriers in accessing education, healthcare and employment, as effectively as political participation and other basic human rights.
“The dehumanisation of people of African descent… has sustained and cultivated a tolerance for racial discrimination, inequality and violence,” the report stated.
Agenda for adjust
The report urges quick action to finish what it described as systemic violations of financial, social, cultural, civil and political rights.
It calls for reversing “cultures of denial” when it comes to racism.
Secondly, it stated there need to be no impunity for human rights violations by law enforcement officials, although trust required to be constructed up and institutional oversight reinforced.
Thirdly, the voices of black persons and anti-racism activists need to be heard and their issues acted upon, stated the report.
This really should incorporate making certain representation at each and every level in state institutions, like law enforcement, criminal justice and policy-generating.
Finally, the legacies of historic racism need to be confronted, like via accountability and redress, the report concluded.
“Behind contemporary forms of racism, dehumanisation and exclusion lies the failure to acknowledge the responsibilities for enslavement… and to comprehensively repair the harms,” it stated.
This really should incorporate generating amends for “centuries of violence and discrimination… including through formal acknowledgement and apologies, truth-telling processes, and reparations”, it added.
Countries in Europe and the Americas need to “dismantle structures and systems designed and shaped by enslavement, colonialism” and discrimination, the report stated.
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