UN session sees rare focus on racism in US

Top human rights body in Geneva holds urgent debate on police brutality

GENEVA－A brother of George Floyd made a heartfelt plea on Wednesday to the United Nations' top human rights body, urging it to launch intense international scrutiny of systemic racism, the killing of black people by police and violence against peaceful protesters in the United States.

Philonese Floyd, in a video message to the UN Human Rights Council, backed a call by dozens of African countries hoping to create a Commission of Inquiry－the council's most powerful tool of scrutiny－to report on racism and violence against protesters by police in the US.

The unprecedented effort to train a potentially uncomfortable spotlight on the US, which calls itself the world's "leading advocate" for human rights, came as it has no voice in the room: The administration of US President Donald Trump pulled out of the 47-member body two years ago.

Philonese Floyd joined the UN human rights chief, the council's independent rapporteur on racism, and many diplomats at an "urgent debate" championed by the Africa Group in the wake of his brother's death. George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American, died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck for several minutes as he pleaded for air and eventually stopped moving

"I am my brother's keeper. You in the United Nations are your brothers and sisters' keepers in America－and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother George Floyd," Philonese Floyd said. "I am asking you to help him. I am asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us－black people in America."

Amina Mohammed, UN deputy secretary-general, said via video teleconference that the debate is a "historic" event, given that Afro-descendants still faced poverty and structural racism.

"I too, like Martin Luther King Jr, have a dream that my granddaughter Maya will grow up in a world where she will not be judged by the color of her skin but by the strength of her character," she said.

Symbol of excessive force

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said George Floyd's killing has become emblematic of the excessive use of disproportionate force by law enforcement against people of African descent, against people of color, against indigenous people and racial and ethnic minorities in countries across the globe.

"Since the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis last month, a wave of massive protests has surged forward, not only across every state in the United States but also in dozens of countries in Europe and all around the world," Bachelet said during the debate.

The council has regularly addressed police brutality and racial profiling in the US, and they were major themes during its last turn five years ago for a regular review of its human rights record that all countries go through at the council.

But never before has the US' record in those areas led to an "urgent debate" on its record in those areas－and some rivals pounced.

Russia's envoy said the US had ignored racism for decades, and called it a "calamitous state of human rights" in the US. China's representative said his country was "saddened and shocked" by Floyd's death, saying it wasn't an isolated case and one that exposed "chronic and deep-rooted racial discrimination" in the US.

The US ambassador in Geneva, Andrew Bremberg－in a statement ahead of the debate－acknowledged "shortcomings" in the US including racial discrimination and insisted the government was "transparent" about dealing with it.

The US has not participated in any of the thrice-yearly council sessions since the Trump administration pulled out in June 2018, citing an alleged anti-Israel bias and acceptance of rights-abusing autocratic states as members.

Agencies - Xinhua