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<a href="http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1210-03.htm">
http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1210-03.htm<br>
</a></font><font face="arial" size=3><b>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br>
</b>DECEMBER 10, 2007<br>
9:54 AM<br><br>
<b>CONTACT:</font><a href="http://www.ushrnetwork.org/">
<font face="arial" size=3 color="#0000FF"> US Human Rights Network<br>
</a></b></font><font face="arial" size=3>Ateqah Khaki and David Lerner,
Riptide Communications, 212-260-5000<br>
<br>
<b>Whitewash: <br>
Human Rights Group Says US Report On Race Covers Up Reality of
Discrimination in America<br><br>
Human Rights Network Issues "Shadow Report" to UN Committee
Report Challenging State Department View<br><br>
</b> <br>
NEW YORK - December 10 - A report released today by the US Human Rights
Network (USHRN), a coalition of over 250 social justice and human rights
groups across the country, charged the Bush Administration with failing
to comply with its obligations under the International Convention on the
Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), an
international treaty that carries the force of law in the United States.
The report, known as a shadow report, was filed with the United Nations
committee that monitors compliance with the treaty based in
Geneva.<br><br>
"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 American's of
color," he added.<br><br>
The Convention, adopted by the United States in 1969, requires signatory
countries to periodically report on their progress in identifying,
correcting, and remedying racism and racial discrimination. The U.S.
quietly submitted a report to the U.N. Committee that monitors compliance
with the Convention last spring. Lisa Crooms, a Howard University law
professor, and an author of the USHRN report says the State Department
report "blatantly overlooks and misrepresents ongoing racial
disparities and discrimination in the US." Among the concerns
identified in the USHRN analysis are:<br><br>
• The U.S. government's
report does not mention the internationally recognized race and poverty
related impacts of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.<br>
• The report completely
ignores the issue of policy brutality, recognized by many Americans as
one of the most blatant and common forms of ongoing differential
treatment based on race.<br>
• The report does not
discuss the well documented "school to prison pipeline," in
which discriminatorily applied "zero tolerance" policies and
criminal justice based responses to overcrowding and under resourcing of
public schools drive children of color out of schools and into the prison
system<br>
• Required to provide
information about compliance with the Convention at the State level, the
government only chose to provide comprehensive information on four
states: Oregon, South Carolina, Illinois and New Mexico, notably
overlooking States with some of the country's largest populations of
people of color and immigrants, such as New York, California, Texas and
Florida, as well as the Gulf Coast States victimized by Katrina.<br>
• The government's
report suggests that stark racial disparities in incarceration rates
(African Americans and Latino/as make up 60% of the over 2 million people
incarcerated in the United States, but less than a quarter of the
population) may be "related to differential involvement in
crime" rather than a result of the cumulative impacts of racial
disparities in the treatment of minorities at every stage of the criminal
justice process. Adding insult to injury, the U.S. report fails to cite
evidence that rates of involvement in many criminalized activities,
including drug use, are actually very similar across race.<br>
• The report highlights
training and outreach programs for law enforcement agencies encouraging
sensitivity to Arab and Muslim communities developed in the aftermath of
9/11, while completely failing to acknowledge widespread racially and
ethnically targeted law enforcement practices such as the special
registration program and aggressive round-ups and interviews of thousands
of non-citizen Muslims, Arabs and South Asians.<br>
• Indigenous people
continue to suffer profound and ongoing effects of the legacy of
colonialism and racial discrimination in the U.S.<br><br>
The report was simultaneously submitted, on behalf national, state and
local organizations from across the country, to the U.N. Committee today.
The same committee will be questioning the U.S. government on its
compliance with its obligations under the Convention early next year, as
a counterpoint to the U.S. report.<br><br>
To view a copy of the shadow report submitted by the US Human Rights
Network, please visit:<br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://lacccenter.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/shadowrptsummary2008.doc%20">
http://lacccenter.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/shadowrptsummary2008.doc<br>
<br>
</a></font><font face="arial" size=3><i>The US Human Rights Network was
formed to promote US accountability to universal human rights standards
by building linkages between organizations and individuals. The Network
strives to build a human rights culture in the United States that puts
those directly affected by human rights violations, with a special
emphasis on grassroots organizations and social movements, in a central
leadership role. The Network also works towards connecting the US human
rights movement with the broader US social justice movement and human
rights movements around the world. To learn more, please
visit:</font><font face="arial" size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.ushrnetwork.org/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.ushrnetwork.org<br><br>
<br>
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