This was originally posted on The Huffington Post.
On this day in 1960, white police officers in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire on a peaceful anti-apartheid demonstration killing 69 black South African protestors. To mark the solemn occasion of what came to be known as the "Sharpeville Massacre," the international community proclaimed this day as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination – an occasion to amplify efforts to eliminate racism.
Closer to home, today is a particularly appropriate time to remind the Obama administration that it needs to make good on a promise it made to the international human rights community to come up with a concrete plan to battle discrimination and fully comply with its obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms or Racial Discrimination, also known as ICERD.
When it comes to racism, putting partisan differences aside should be easy. We can all agree that racial discrimination violates the fundamental human right to equality that all people enjoy. People of good conscience of all political stripes can agree that our government can and should do more to combat racial discrimination and promote inclusion and opportunity.
But how do we get there from here?
In the pre-GPS days, when planning a road trip, travelers would actually have to look at (gasp!) a map and then chart a course for the best way to get from point A to point B.
Making even incremental progress on intractable societal problems requires a similar approach: figure out where we are and where we want to go, then chart a course.
Take for example HIV and AIDS. To its credit, the Obama administration made this issue a priority in its first term. To address the problem of HIV and AIDS, the administration created a National HIV/AIDS Strategy Implementation Plan.
So why can't we do the same for racism? Granted, it is a different kind of "disease," but racism and discrimination also have the power to destroy lives and to deprive people of their fundamental right to dignity.
In 2010, as part of a U.N. Human Rights Council review of America's human rights performance, the U.S. agreed to adopt "a comprehensive national work-plan to combat racial discrimination." Though the Obama administration has created an Interagency Equality Working Group, currently tasked with reporting on and implementing the ICERD, it has not yet moved forward on the promise to create a National Plan of Action to fully implement this critical treaty the U.S. ratified nearly 20 years ago.
While in recent decades the U.S. has made some progress on eliminating racism and structural discrimination, there is still a long way to go and much work to be done to combat all forms of racism and racial discrimination, from the criminal justice system to the housing market to the education system and beyond. For example:
- African-Americans and Latinos are disproportionately incarcerated in the United States – 1 of 15 black male adults and 1 of 36 Latino male adults is imprisoned, compared to 1 of 106 white male adults.
- In the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis, about 1 in 10 white homeowners have lost their homes to foreclosure or are seriously delinquent on their loans, but the figure for black and Latino homeowners is 1 in 4.
- Close to one third of black students attend schools that are more than 90 percent black, and these schools are far more poorly funded than schools with predominately white students.
It is high time for a plan of action to combat racism and we think that today is the day to begin this important work. So today, the ACLU joins the U.S. Human Rights Network and dozens of other civil rights and human rights organizations around the country to continue our call on the Obama administration to create a national plan of action to combat racial discrimination. (Read our letter to the administration here.)
This is not simply a moral imperative, it is also a legal obligation: as a signatory to the ICERD, the U.S. government is legally obligated to combat racism in all its forms. The committee that oversees compliance with the ICERD treaty has called on the U.S. to implement a "national strategy or plan of action" to combat racial discrimination. In order to meet its obligations under the treaty, the U.S. needs to do so.
So why delay the comprehensive fight against racism?
There are roadmaps out there already. Creating a plan to combat racism has been done before. Australia has a "National Anti-Racism Partnership and Strategy," and Canada has an "Action Plan Against Racism." Other countries like Ireland and Norway have similar plans as well.
America is the country where giants like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Cesar Chavez fought for freedom, equality and social justice. The United States should be setting a global example through our actions in combating racism, and that global example has to begin with a concrete game plan. It is time for our government to prove its human rights commitment to eradicating racism by creating a roadmap to end all forms of racism, racial discrimination, and xenophobia.
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News & CommentaryDec 2024
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News & CommentaryDec 2024
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Press ReleaseOct 2024
Human Rights
Free Speech
Universities Should Protect Students’ Right to Protest, End Crackdown on Peaceful ProtestsUniversities Should Protect Students’ Right to Protest, End Crackdown on Peaceful Protests
WASHINGTON – College and university presidents across the U.S. need to respect and protect the right to protest in support of Palestinian rights the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch said today in an open letter. For months the organizations have raised concerns about the potential use of unlawful force when university administrators call in law enforcement officers to break up demonstrations on campus. This new letter comes after reports of heavy-handed and excessive force by some campus police and local law enforcement against peaceful protests and encampments across the country. The groups provide recommendations for colleges and universities to ensure they protect the right to protest on their campuses. The organizations also urge university administrations to refrain from taking any further measures to suppress student protests on campus, including stopping the use of so-called less lethal weapons and ensuring that coercive police power is used only as a last resort, among other recommendations. “Universities are responsible for protecting both physical safety and free expression on campus,” said Jamil Dakwar, director at the ACLU’s Human Rights Program. “It’s deeply concerning to see universities needlessly expose students to police violence for peacefully expressing their political opinions. We’re urging schools once again to exercise restraint, practice de-escalation, and protect free speech and dissent on campus.” Preliminary analysis by Amnesty International’s Digital Verification Corps has identified at least 174 photos, videos, or social media posts from 20 universities of potential excessive use of force by law enforcement under international law that merits further investigation. This includes 17 universities where chemical irritants such as pepper spray appear to have been used against student protesters, and 11 universities where officers appear to have responded to protests armed with kinetic impact projectiles such as rubber bullets. The results of this use of force by law enforcement agencies have been devastating, including media-verified reports of severe injuries such as bleeding puncture wounds, head injuries, broken teeth, and suspected broken bones, most notably at the University of California Los Angeles, Columbia University, and the City College of New York. The Digital Verification Corps also documented at least 10 other universities where photos or videos capture potential injuries to students. It found that half of the incidents involving injuries under investigation appear to be the result of chemical irritants. “The information we have gathered on excessive use of force against student protesters is extremely worrisome and we are still in the beginning of our investigation,” said Justin Mazzola, researcher with Amnesty International USA. “With the continuation of the Israeli military’s assault on Gaza and the risk of US complicity through the sending of weapons, campus protests in favor of stopping the violence and destruction will continue. Universities have a responsibility to protect academic freedom and the rights to freedom of expression, and to peacefully protest, and we will be watching to ensure they do.” The ACLU, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch are not alone in their concern. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and several UN experts, including the UN special rapporteur on the right to education, have criticized the violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators by law enforcement and disciplinary measures against students exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. All higher education institutions, even private colleges and universities, where the First Amendment is not applicable, have a responsibility to respect the right to freedom of peaceful assembly under international law. “Instead of resorting to police action that both shuts down free speech and heightens the risk of injuries, universities need to do more to protect student speech from violence and intimidation, and actively ensure that peaceful student expression continues without interference,” said Tanya Greene, director of the US program at Human Rights Watch. As the letter explains, the ACLU, Amnesty International USA, and Human Rights Watch are conducting research and analysis of how campus administrators are responding to student protests. They urge universities to fulfill their human rights responsibilities by facilitating protests and ensuring that all students' rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, regardless of viewpoint, is respected. A comprehensive joint report on this issue is slated to be released by the ACLU and Amnesty International USA in the coming months. The open letter is available here: https://www.aclu.org/documents/letter-to-universities-student-protesters -
News & CommentaryOct 2024
Immigrants' Rights
Human Rights
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