UN experts call on U.S. to promote accountability for past, future violations of human rights

GENEVA, May 6 (Xinhua) -- United Nations (UN) experts on Friday called on the United States to boost efforts to promote accountability for past and future violations of human rights.

After a 12-day visit to the United States, members of the International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in the Context of Law Enforcement, a delegation appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, said they "felt an urgency, and a moral responsibility, to echo the harrowing pain of victims" and their resounding calls for accountability and support, according to a UN statement.

Slavery has left a deep and long-lasting entrenched legacy on the country, which can be perceived through generational trauma, the independent experts noted, the statement said.

Racial discrimination permeates all contacts with law enforcement, from the first contact -- often during early school years -- by means of racial profiling, arrest, detention, sentencing and disenfranchisement in some U.S. states, UN experts said.

"In each of those aspects, available data points to a clear disproportional impact upon people of African descent," and it should be an "imperative priority" to address and unpack the issue of poverty, moving from a criminal justice response to a human rights-centered response to poverty, homelessness, substance abuse, and mental illness, they added.

The Mechanism has shared its preliminary findings with the White House and will draft a full report to be published in the coming months and presented to the Human Rights Council at its next full session.

The Mechanism, established in 2021, was aimed at ending systemic racism and human rights violations by law enforcement against Africans and people of African descent.