“Killings
of unarmed African Americans by the police is only the tip of the iceberg in
what is a pervasive racial bias in the justice system,” the report highlighted.
Police
killings and continued racial discrimination against African Americans in the
United States are reminiscent of racial terror practices which were once used
against black slaves, according to a United Nations-affiliated human rights
body report released earlier this week.
Presenting
the findings to the ongoing 33rd session of the Human Rights Council (HRC), the
Chairperson of HRC’s Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent
warned that “the legacy of colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination
and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States
remained a serious challenge.”
According
to statistics, the U.S. jail population stands at some 2.2 million individuals,
with a further 7 million offenders on parole or probation.
Over
one third (36 percent) of sentenced federal and state prisoners are African
Americans, with the imprisonment rate for black males and females respectively
5.9 and 2.1 times higher than for their white counterparts.
“Thousands
of young African Americans, particularly those living under the poverty line
and with low levels of educational attainment, have been placed in detention
centres, without addressing the root causes of crime, guaranteeing better
security to the communities where they lived or offering them effective
rehabilitation,” the report explained.
The
makeup of the U.S. judicial system also stands to blame for handing out unfair
verdicts to African Americans.
According
to the Working Group, the racial composition of juries is one of the main
factors behind racial bias when sentencing offenders to the death penalty.
Hate
crimes targeting African Americans also continue to exist, as was seen by the
Charleston church attack in 2015.
Findings
also showed that disparities in access to education, health, housing and
employment have severely impacted the well-being of African Americans in the
U.S.
In
light of these trends, the Working Group underlined the “profound need” to
recognize the transatlantic trade in Africans, enslavement, colonization and
colonialism as a crime against humanity.
It
also urged Washington to take serious action to prevent any further unlawful
killings as a matter of national priority while granting reparations to African
Americans for past injustices.
Created
in 2006, the HRC is an inter-governmental body working to promote and protect
human rights around the globe through thematic discussions and structured
recommendations.
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