Human rights advocates gather in Geneva to address U.S. record on racism

Human rights activists from the United States are gathering in the Swiss city of Geneva this week to hold the government to account for violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The international committee in charge of monitoring and reporting on compliance with ICERD will examine U.S. adherence to the convention in a session scheduled for this Thursday and Friday, Feb. 21 and 22.

Among the organizations that will be attending the session is the Atlanta-based U.S. Human Rights Network, which submitted to the monitoring committee a comprehensive shadow report addressing a host of issues largely ignored by the U.S. government in its own compliance report. Those issues include racism in the criminal justice system, treatment of immigrants and indigenous people, and ethnic cleansing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. USHRN staff will be blogging from Geneva; you can read that blog here.