BlackCommentator.com: Color of Law
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In a recent Color of Law commentary, I discussed a shadow report by the over 250-member US Human Rights Network (USHRN), which claims that America is failing to comply with its obligations under the Race Convention. The shadow report was a response to an April 2007 report submitted by the U.S. government on its compliance with ICERD, a report that all signatory nations are required to submit every two years. The U.S. report angered the human rights community, and according to critics it represented a whitewashing of America’s racial problems.
“Our analysis reveals that the Bush Administration is utterly out of touch with the reality of racial discrimination in America,” said Ajamu Baraka, the Executive Director of the USHRN. “From failing to address the chronic persistence of structural racism to even acknowledging the disparate racial impact on people of color of Hurricane Katrina, the State Department reports reads like a fantasy; unfortunately a fantasy that is to often experienced as a nightmare for Americans of color,” Baraka added.
PeoplesHurricane.org
A Report to the United Nations’ Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Against tremendous opposition from the U.S. Government, hurricane survivors are struggling to return home and rebuild their communities. The government’s failure to protect the rights of displaced people, who are predominantly African American violates the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (“CERD”) and is contrary to the United Nations’ Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, which specifically prohibits ethnic cleansing and racial discrimination.
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