Summary:
Some initiatives have been to combat racism in various nations, although they are typically fragmentary. There is an Anti-Racism Data Act in British Columbia, Canada, and measures to assess police ethnic profiling in Sweden. The European Commission has published guidelines on gathering and using data based on racial or ethnic origin. African Americans were killed by police, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor (both from the United States), Adama Traoré (from France), Luana Barbosa dos Reis Santos and Joo Pedro Matos Pinto. Kevin Clarke (from the United Kingdom), and Janner Garcia Palomino (Colombia).
Despite increased awareness of systematic racism and the implementation of specific measures in some nations, the Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights urged states to show a stronger political will to quicken the pace of action.
Some initiatives have been to combat racism in various nations, although they are typically fragmentary. As Nada Al-Nashif, who will present the report to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, put it, “They fall short of the comprehensive, evidence-based approaches needed to dismantle the entrenched structural, institutional, and societal racism that has existed for centuries and continues to inflict deep harm today.”
She mainly referred to the plan for transformative change for racial justice and equality published by OHCHR and its essential recommendations.
Causing change
The report details efforts made at the local, national, and international levels to eradicate racism.
There is an Anti-Racism Data Act in British Columbia, Canada; measures to assess police ethnic profiling in Sweden; and data collection to self-identify people of African descent in Argentina, among others. The White House Executive Order advancing effective, accountable policing and criminal justice practices in federal law enforcement agencies is another.
The European Commission has published guidelines on gathering and using data based on racial or ethnic origin; formal apologies have been issued; memorialization has taken place; public spaces have been revisited, and research has been conducted to evaluate links to enslavement and colonialism in various countries.
An indicator of success.
In many countries, people of African heritage continue to have poor health, inadequate food, education, social protection, and justice outcomes; at the same time, poverty, enforced disappearances, and violence persist.
The article draws attention to “continuing…allegations of discriminatory treatment, illegal deportations, excessive use of force, and fatalities of African migrants and migrants of African heritage by law enforcement officers.”
According to Ms Al-Nashif, “the barometer for success must be a positive change in the lived realities of people of African descent.”
The United States must pay attention to people of African heritage, engage them in meaningful ways, and genuinely act on their issues.
greater death toll
Recent data, where available, continues to show the disproportionately high death rates that people of African origin experience at the hands of law enforcement in many nations.
In their quest for the truth and justice surrounding the killings of their relatives, “families of African origin continued to lament the great hurdles, barriers and delayed processes they experienced,” the report adds.
It describes seven instances of African Americans killed by police, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor (both from the United States), Adama Traoré (from France), Luana Barbosa dos Reis Santos and Joo Pedro Matos Pinto (both from Brazil), Kevin Clarke (from the United Kingdom), and Janner [Hanner] Garcia Palomino (Colombia).
Unfortunately, not a single case has yet been brought to a full conclusion, with those families still seeking truth, justice, and guarantees of non-repetition, as well as the prosecution and sanction of all those responsible,” the report says, noting some progress towards accountability in a few of these emblematic cases.
Ms Al-Nashif urged governments to “step up efforts to guarantee accountability and redress wherever deaths of Africans and persons of African descent have happened in law enforcement and take steps to address legacies that perpetuate and sustain systemic racism.”
Analysis by: Advocacy Unified network
