ACLU in Geneva to Testify on Ongoing Racial and Ethnic Injustice

UN Committee to Question U.S. Government on State Of Human Rights Abuses
For Immediate Release: February 20, 2008



SAN FRANCISCO – Maya Harris, executive director of the ACLU of Northern California, and other representatives of the ACLU are in Geneva this week to testify before the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The ACLU delegation will provide detailed testimony intended to counter the stark shortcomings of the U.S. government report to CERD, including the absence of data on California, the country’s most racially diverse state.  

The ACLU has authored an independent "shadow report" on the pervasive institutional, systemic and structural racism in America called Race & Ethnicity in America: Turning a Blind Eye to Injustice. The U.N. committee reviewed the ACLU and other NGOs’ reports before determining what questions it will ask the U.S. government at this week’s hearings. 

“When it comes to evidence of racial and ethnic injustice in the United States, our government appears to have a blindspot," said Harris. "We are here to correct the record.”  

On the first day of their visit this week, Monday, February 18, ACLU client, Akif Rahman, a native-born United States citizen and victim of post-9/11 racial profiling, testified before CERD Committee members about how he was detained and questioned by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on five separate occasions as he re-entered the country after business or personal trips abroad. According to DHS, Rahman’s detentions were the result of an “unfortunate misidentification scenario.” The ACLU brought a 2005 lawsuit on Rahman’s behalf seeking to end this unjustified practice.

Later that day, Harris and others from the delegation of non-governmental organizations testified before the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Racism, Mr. Doudou Diène.   Harris chronicled her experience and reflections in the blogosphere.

The U.S. government submitted its report in April 2007 to the CERD committee, an independent group of internationally recognized human rights experts that oversees compliance with the international treaty on the elimination of racial discrimination that was ratified by the U.S. in 1994. The treaty requires countries to review national, state and local policies and to amend or repeal laws and regulations that create or perpetuate racial discrimination.  On Thursday, February 21, and Friday, February 22, the committee will question the U.S. delegation to the CERD hearings, which includes Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

The ACLU has criticized the government’s report for its major shortcomings, including only minor mention of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the outright omission of issues including the dramatic increase in hate crimes, exploitation and migrant workers, the escalating problem of police brutality and racial profiling, and the “school to prison pipeline,” whereby the criminal justice system overzealously funnels students of color out of classrooms and on a path toward prison.

Harris will discuss California issues such as racial profiling by law enforcement, the shameful conditions that plague many public schools attended largely by African-American and Latino students, and stark racial disparities in the criminal justice system.  The government crackdown against immigrants is also a central focus of the testimony from the U.S. 

 “The United States has consistently failed to level with the international community about its human rights record and the racial injustices happening in its own backyard,” said Jamil Dakwar, Advocacy Director of the ACLU Human Rights Program. “The hearings in Geneva offer another chance to set the record straight, which must be done so that the U.S. can begin to fulfill its obligation to end racial inequality and uphold human rights.”

In addition to Maya Harris and Jamil Dakwar, national ACLU staff Dennis Parker, Chandra Bhatnagar, Laleh Ispahani, and Lenora Lapidus, as well as representatives of the lllinois, Louisiana and Texas ACLU affiliates, are attending the hearings in Geneva.

The ACLU’s shadow report and executive summary are available online.