UN rights council orders probe into global racism
Group voices alarm at the ‘unprecedented escalation’ in rights violations in Belarus, slams the forced landing of a passenger plane to arrest a regime critic
The UN Human Rights Council ( UNHCR) on Tuesday highlighted the global “scourge” of systemic racism and ordered an independent investigation into racially-fuelled police violence around the world.
In a resolution brought by a group of African countries, the council harshly condemned “continuing racially discriminatory and violent practices perpetrated by many law enforcement officials against Africans and people of African descent.”
The text, which was adopted without a vote, decried “systemic racism in the law enforcement and criminal justice systems,” and the need to bring offenders to justice.
It ordered the creation of an “international independent expert mechanism” to “advance racial justice and equality in the context of law enforcement in all parts of the world.”
The experts, who will be appointed by the council president with a three-year mandate, will be asked to conduct country visits and to consult with states and affected communities and individuals.
The team will examine “the root causes of systemic racism in law enforcement and the criminal justice system, the excessive use of force, racial profiling.”
It will also probe other police violations that “may lead to disproportionate and widespread interaction between law enforcement officers and Africans and people of African descent.”
The experts will also “investigate governments’ responses to peaceful anti-racism protests” and “any nexus between supremacist movements and actors within law enforcement and the criminal justice system.”
Their main task will be promoting racial justice and equality in law enforcement around the world, the impact of “legacies of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade in enslaved Africans,” and accountability and redress for victims.
The resolution follows a report published last month by UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet on systemic racism, called for ater last year’s murder of George Floyd by a white US police officer.
The UNHCR also voiced alarm on Tuesday at the “unprecedented escalation” in rights violations in Belarus, slamming in particular the recent forced landing of a passenger plane to arrest a regime critic.
The body decided to extend for another year the mandate of a top UN expert charged with keeping track of rights developments in the country.
The resolution to extend, which was adopted with 21 of the council’s 47 members voting in favour, seven opposed and 19 abstaining, also urged Belarus, which so far has barred special rapporteur Anais Marin from entering the country, to cooperate with her.
The resolution stressed the need to keep a close eye on the situation in Belarus, voicing “deep concern about the unprecedented escalation in violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms” in the country.
Ahead of the vote, Belarusian ambassador Yuri Ambrazevich slammed the text for “interference” in the country’s internal affairs.
“I would like to turn to my Western colleagues, and urge you to mind your own domestic business,” he told the council.
Several countries came to Belarus’s defence, with the representative of main ally Russia decrying the “lopsided unbalanced and biased initiative.”
Tuesday’s resolution pointed to “the increasing disproportionate and discriminatory restrictions on freedoms of peaceful assembly, association and expression, resulting in systematic harassment, intimidation and repression of civil society and independent media.”
It also decried “the mass arbitrary detentions and arrests of journalists and other media workers, human rights defenders” and others.
And it voiced continued grave concern at “reports of systematic and widespread torture,” as well as of sexual violence against people in detention.
The resolution highlighted in particular the May 23 forced landing of a Ryanair GreeceLithuania flight in Minsk, which allowed Belarusian authorities to arrest dissident journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega.
It criticised the “extraction of forced confessions,” and demanded the pair’s immediate and unconditional release.