Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
1401 New York Avenue, NW
Suite 400
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For Immediate Release
Contact:
Stacie Miller
202-662-8317
smiller@lawyerscommittee.org

May 20, 2008

UN Independent Expert On Racism Begins Fact-Finding
Mission In U.S.
Official Visit Underscores Ongoing Issues of Discrimination From D.C. to L.A.

WASHINGTON – Several national civil liberties and human rights groups today welcomed a fact-finding mission to the U.S. by the United Nations special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The American Civil Liberties Union, Global Rights, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, the U.S. Human Rights Network, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Rights Working Group and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty call on the U.S., state and local governments to fully cooperate with the special rapporteur.

“We are pleased to finally see the government doing more to engage seriously with international human rights bodies,” said Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU Human Rights Program. “In this election year, the eyes of the world will be turned toward America and its longstanding commitment to end racial and ethnic inequalities.”  

At the invitation of the U.S. government, Special Rapporteur Doudou Diène will visit the U.S. from May 18 to June 6to examine issues of racism and racial discrimination in this country. Diène will visit the cities of Washington, New York, Chicago, Omaha, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico over the next three weeks where he will study incidents of contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and the governmental measures in place to address them.

“It is very fortuitous that Mr. Diène is visiting the United States at a time when the country is experiencing a history-making presidential campaign in which the race and gender of two major candidates have caused an examination of how far the country has come regarding race relations but also how far it still has to go,” said Barbara R. Arnwine, executive director, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Diène is scheduled to meet with federal and local government officials as well as members of diverse communities across the United States and representatives of several non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

In March 2008, the separate U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued a strongly worded critique of the United States’ record on racial discrimination and urged the government to make sweeping reforms to policies affecting racial and ethnic minorities, women, immigrants and indigenous populations in the U.S.Several civil liberties and human rights organizations have urged the special rapporteur to critically examine the continuation of racism and racial discrimination in various areas identified by CERD and well documented in extensive NGO “shadow reports”, including criminal justice, education, housing, juvenile justice, immigration policy, police brutality, hate crimes and racial profiling.

The mandate of the special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance was established in 1993 by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and further extended by the U.N. Human Rights Council. The special rapporteur will submit a final report on the visit to the Human Rights Council in the spring of 2009.

More information about the special rapporteur’s visit is available online at: www.aclu.org/intlhumanrights/racialjustice/sronracism.html and www.ushrnetwork.org/special_rep<

More information about the CERD recommendations to the U.S. is available at: www.aclu.org/intlhumanrights/racialjustice/cerd.htmland and www.ushrnetwork.org/projects/cerd

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination. The principal mission of the Lawyers’ Committee is to secure, through the rule of law, equal justice under law, particularly in the areas of housing, community development, employment, voting, education and environmental justice.  For more information about the LCCRUL, visit www.lawyerscommittee.org.

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