ACLU and Human Rights at Home Campaign Remind Obama Administration of Its Obligation to Implement Global Treaty Against Racial Discrimination

Yesterday, the Human Rights at Home Campaign, which includes the ACLU, submitted a letter to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva which held a thematic discussion on racial discrimination against people of African descent. In the context of the International Year for People of African Descent, the letter serves as an update on the status of U.S. implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), a treaty that the U.S. ratified in 1994. The letter highlights the disappointing lack of government progress to develop a comprehensive action plan to fight and end racial discrimination in the U.S., as recommended by the committee.

In March 2008, the committee specifically pressed the U.S. government to establish appropriate mechanisms to ensure a coordinated approach towards the implementation of ICERD at the federal, state and local levels. The coalition letter also emphasizes the relevance of recommendations made by other U.N. experts who made visits to the U.S., including Doudou Diene, the former Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.

Last January, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed her support to the international year for people of African decent, saying: "This is also a time, especially here in the Americas, to remember our hemisphere's shameful history of slavery and to reaffirm our commitment to eradicate racism and reduce inequality wherever it lingers."

We hope that Secretary Clinton's words will be matched with additional concrete actions to address human rights violations of people of African decent here at home, especially in the critical domains of providing equal access to a quality education, putting and end to racial profiling, and felon disfranchisement. A good first step would be to honor and translate U.S. obligations under ICERD through the development of a national plan of action for ICERD implementation with full and meaningful consultation with civil society and affected communities and in collaboration with local and state governments.