Thread: UN to US: Do More Against Racism

Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008

UN to US: Do More Against Racism
By ELIANE ENGELER API

GENEVA (AP) - U.N. human rights experts told the United States on Thursday to step up efforts to combat racial discrimination in the detention of African-Americans and Hispanics and questioned the treatment of illegal immigrants.

U.S. Ambassador Warren W. Tichenor said United States had made great strides toward equality but he conceded that "we still have significant work to do."

The United States was making its first appearance since 2001 before the experts of the U.N. panel on the elimination of racial discrimination. The 18 independent experts, who are unpaid, periodically review the performance of countries that have signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Linos-Alexander Sicilianos, who led the questioning, said there was overwhelming evidence of police brutality against African-Americans, Arabs and Muslims, Hispanics and other minority groups.

"You need to intensify your efforts at all levels to combat this very alarming phenomenon," Sicilianos, a Greek lawyer on the panel, told the U.S. delegation.

Grace Chung Becker, a U.S. assistant attorney general, told the committee that U.S. law prohibits the use of excessive force by any law enforcement officer against any individual in the United States. The offenders can be punished under criminal law or the victims can bring a civil lawsuit, she said.

Sicilianos said he was pleased that the United States was committed to protect the rights of foreigners regardless of their immigration status, but he said there were numerous failures in living up to its commitments.

"Especially since 9/11, immigrants and refugee communities in the United States have been subjected ... to a range of systematic human rights violations directed by the federal government, local county and state governments, law enforcement agents, employers and private actors," he said.

Sicilianos said he based the accusation on evidence submitted by a large coalition of American human rights groups.

Several other experts on the panel said people of color suffer from racial profiling - being stopped, searched and arrested by police much more than whites are.

"Especially Muslims are suffering from this, and measures are necessary to prevent this from continuing," said Kokou Mawuena Ika Kana Ewomsan, a human rights expert from Togo.

Becker noted that President Bush has said racial profiling "is wrong and we will end it in America."

"The current administration was the first to issue racial profiling guidelines for federal law enforcement officers," she added.

As one of the 173 countries which have ratified the treaty, the United States was taking its turn before the committee this week. A second session is planned for Friday. The United States has submitted a 119-page report to the panel.

2008-02-21 21:48:51 GMT

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Cuba which has a Colored and Black majority has four Whites Raul Castro, Lage, Perez Roque and Alarcon competing to replace a White Fidel Castro who has ruled for fifty years. We the United States have a Black running for President from the Democratic Party. Has the UN made any sort of comment about racism on the part of the Cubans?

Sicilianos said he based the accusation on evidence submitted by a large coalition of American human rights groups





Well, we all know who they are, now don't we?

When is the U.N. going to get around taking up the issue with countries like Mexico and Islamic countries?

Or, is this just reserved for the US?

Originally Posted by Richard

Cuba which has a Colored and Black majority has four Whites Raul Castro, Lage, Perez Roque and Alarcon competing to replace a White Fidel Castro who has ruled for fifty years. We the United States have a Black running for President from the Democratic Party. Has the UN made any sort of comment about racism on the part of the Cubans?

A most excellent point, Richard!

Shut the hell up UN. What good have you done any country ?

Since when is the UN running things here ?

I think its long past due for that den of snakes to get the boot

"Especially Muslims are suffering from this, and measures are necessary to prevent this from continuing," said Kokou Mawuena Ika Kana Ewomsan, a human rights expert from Togo.

I would like to hear what he thinks of sharia law and the lopping off of heads and hands and "honor killings" and the subjegation of woman under muslim rule. I have never hear of any muslims being mistreated. I'm sure anytime a muslim is arrested for anything it's a violation of human rights. If all these people are being mistreated, it sure didn't make the news anywhere around here. Where are all these horrible widespread abuses, except in the minds of the people who report them??!!

How about the thousands of deaths at the hands of illegal aliens? Does that fall into any human rights category?

Mexico has the largest "human rights" organization in the world and it has been accused of corruption.

I wonder what kind of education one must have to be a "human rights" expert?

Since this guy was from TOGO, I googled them and this was what I found...

The human rights situation in Togo has been particularly bad in the past three years, with mass killings, extra-judicial executions, rapes, bombing of houses, etc. A regime of terror has taken over the country, and the authorities appear to be deaf to the appeals and condemnations of the international human rights community. Prisoners were found dead in their cells, political opponents killed, and members of the press arrested.

http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/africa/togo.htm

This fool needs to go back and fix his own country. It takes a lot of nerve to chastise the U.S. for unfounded racial profiling when such massive problems occur in your own back door.

I don't think anyone listens to the UN anymore. I am hoping they set up shop in another country. Hopefully one that is not as safe as ours is.

The UN is one of the biggest CORRUPT Entities in the World ... did some dumb ass in the American government actually read this crap before chucking it into the trash can