US admits its failure to uphold civil rights laws
Print Edition
THE United States acknowledged to the UN yesterday that it had not done enough to uphold civil rights laws.
The statement followed a string of killings of unarmed black men by police.
Speaking before the United Nations Human Rights Council, a US representative stressed the advances his country had made in establishing a range of civil rights laws since segregation ended more than half a century ago.
But a number of recent cases of police brutality against African Americans shows “we must rededicate ourselves to ensuring that our civil rights laws live up to their promise,” said James Cadogan, a senior counselor in the justice department’s civil rights division.
“The tragic deaths of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Michael Brown in Missouri, Eric Garner in New York, Tamir Rice in Ohio, and Walter Scott in South Carolina have challenged us to do better and to work harder for progress.”
The US was undergoing a Universal Periodic Review of its rights record — which all 193 UN countries must submit to every four years.
The US delegation faced a barrage of questions about police tactics and brutality as well as the disproportionate impact on minorities.
Namibia representative Gladice Pickering urged Washington to “collaborate closely with marginalized communities to fix the broken justice system that continues to discriminate against them despite recent waves of protest over racial profiling and police killings of unarmed black men.”
The half-day review in Geneva came after the US justice department last Friday launched a federal civil rights investigation into whether police in Baltimore had systematically discriminated against residents, following the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in police custody last month. Six police officers have been charged in connection with Gray’s arrest and death. One faces a second-degree murder charge.
“When federal, state, local or tribal officials wilfully use excessive force that violates the US Constitution or federal law, we have authority to prosecute them,” Cadogan said, pointing to criminal charges brought against more than 400 law enforcement officials over the past six years.
During the review, many of the 117 country representatives who took the floor also criticized the continued use of the death penalty in the US.
Sweden’s representative Anna Jakenberg Brinck was among many to demand a “national moratorium on the death penalty aiming at abolition.”
Others, including France, also called for “full transparency” in the types of drugs being used to carry out executions, following several recent botched executions.
The issue of US counter-terrorism operations and targeted drone killings was also raised, with Pakistan’s representative demanding compensation for innocent victims of such strikes.
The CIA’s drone campaign targeting al-Qaida and Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan has long been highly controversial. The latest debate came after Washington acknowledged that a drone strike in January had killed an American and an Italian held hostage.
The issue of mass surveillance systems brought to light in documents leaked by Edward Snowden, was also raised, as was detention of illegal immigrants.
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