UN Report: US fails to implement terms of treaty on eliminating racial
discrimination
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Lisa Borden, SPLC Senior Policy Counsel, International Advocacy | Read
the full piece here
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Friend,
A United Nations committee that is reviewing U.S. compliance with an
international treaty on racial discrimination has issued findings that
should be seen as a serious rebuke and wakeup call for the Biden
administration.
The final report of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination (CERD
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), issued on Aug. 30, criticized the systemic and longstanding failure
of the U.S. to take compliance with the treaty seriously and to
develop mechanisms to integrate its goals into domestic policy.
In its concluding observations and recommendations
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regarding the U.S., the committee raised significant concerns about
compliance with nearly every aspect of the International Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
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.
Especially noteworthy was CERD's focus on issues contained in
specific recommendations that the Southern Poverty Law Center
submitted to the committee earlier in August. These issues included
hate and extremism as well as racial disparities in voting, health
care, education, the criminal legal system and immigration.
The SPLC went to Geneva
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, Switzerland, as part of a coalition of more than 70 advocates from
U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), to provide
documentation to CERD of ongoing racial discrimination and disparities
in the U.S. We submitted three reports
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in advance of the review and traveled with a delegation
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that included two formerly incarcerated people who shared their
experiences with committee members.
We're pleased that CERD embraced many of our policy
recommendations on the issues we raised. We will now work with
coalition partners to urge the Biden administration to translate those
recommendations into concrete policy changes.
At the same time, it's deeply troubling that the U.S. has not
done more to implement the treaty, the oldest of nine core
international human rights accords. The U.S. has ratified only three
of the nine. The U.S. signed the treaty on racial discrimination in
1966 but did not ratify it until 1994.
General failure to implement the treaty
At the outset, the committee reiterated concerns it had expressed in
past reviews about the continued failure of the U.S. to incorporate
the treaty into domestic law and policy, specifically mentioning its
notable absence from President Joe Biden's Executive Order on
Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities
Through the Federal Government
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.
The SPLC has repeatedly raised this issue, not only in our reports to
CERD but also directly to various U.S. officials.
Even though the U.S. has signed and ratified the treaty, Congress has
never taken any steps to incorporate its requirements into U.S.
legislation, and no administration has made an effort to do the same
when developing and implementing domestic policy. This means that the
treaty is in force on paper, but any instance of compliance with its
requirements is merely coincidental.
The committee also regretted the continued failure of the United
States to create a national human rights institution (NHRI) or any
similar coordinating mechanism to monitor implementation of the
treaty. Additionally, the committee lamented the continued absence of
a comprehensive national action plan to combat systemic racism and
structural discrimination. It urged the U.S. to proceed on both
fronts.
The U.S. has long declined to establish any federal mechanism to
coordinate and monitor implementation of any of its international
human rights treaty obligations, claiming that agency-level oversight
of related domestic laws and regulations is sufficient. That claim is
clearly mistaken, given the results of CERD's review and the
failure of the federal government to even consider these treaties when
fashioning domestic policy.
Notably, a White House representative who was part of the
president's Geneva delegation told the committee during the
review that the administration would consider proceeding with a study
of how best to create an NHRI - a welcome departure from the
intentions expressed by the administration during pre-review
consultations, when the same person told NGO representatives that
there were no plans to pursue this.
The committee also recommended that the U.S. consult with NGOs
regarding the creation and implementation of a national action plan to
combat systemic racism and structural discrimination.
READ MORE
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In solidarity,
Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
The SPLC is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond,
working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy,
strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of
all people.
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