Experts denounce systemic racism in US prisons and the police
UN* human rights experts are calling for comprehensive reforms in the US criminal justice system to combat systemic racism. The report includes testimony from black women who were chained to give birth in prison and from male inmates who were forced to work in similar conditions as slaves on plantations.
In a report released Thursday, three United Nations-appointed experts said that during visits in April and May they found practices in U.S. prisons that… “an affront to human dignity.”
The experts “heard first-hand unbearable direct testimonies from pregnant women who were chained during childbirth and lost their babies as a result of the chaining.
They also collected testimony from a Louisiana prison where thousands of prisoners, mostly black men, “were forced to work on horses in the fields (including picking cotton) under the supervision of white men in conditions very similar to those of the time.” were similar.” 150 years.
The report calls the reports from the so-called “Angola” center “horrifying” and claims they involve “contemporary forms of slavery.” Experts also expressed concern about the widespread use of solitary confinement, which appears to be used disproportionately on black prisoners. A black man told them that he had been in solitary confinement for eleven years straight.
“Our conclusions point to the urgent need for comprehensive reform,” said Juan Méndez, one of the experts.
This commission was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021 following the murder of George Floyd, a black man who died after a police officer pinned his neck to the ground.
The report was based on statements from 133 people in five cities in the United States as well as statements collected at five detention centers. It contains a list of 30 recommendations to the US authorities, including reparations for people of African descent.
High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk is calling for the deployment of a multinational mission to help Haitian police combat violence “that has permeated all levels of society and exacerbated a serious security and human rights crisis.”
“With international support and determination, the Haitian people can face this serious insecurity and find a way out of this chaos,” Turk said.
The latest report from the High Commissioner to the country asserts that such an operation is “essential” to enable police to combat organized crime, armed gangs and international trafficking in arms, drugs and human beings.
At least between January 1st and August 15th, 2023 2,439 people died, 902 were injured and 951 were kidnapped.
In another report on the country, the Secretary-General warns that gang violence is increasing in Haiti, spreading from the capital Port-au-Prince through the center of the country to two other major cities, Gonaives and Cap-Haïtien, with a significant increase in murders , kidnappings and rapes in recent months.
Gang members continue to use sexual violence such as gang rape “to terrorize populations under the control of rival gangs,” Guterres said, highlighting that 452 cases of rape were reported between October 2022 and June 2023.
The Security Council is negotiating a resolution that would authorize a multinational force outside the UN to fight criminal groups.
More than 50,000 refugees arrive in Armenia
Public Domain/Sonashen
More than 50,000 civilians have arrived in Armenia from the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, the High Commissioner for Refugees reported
Filippo Grandi assured that “their number is increasing every hour”.
UNHCR has dispatched convoys of relief supplies and stands ready to mobilize additional resources to support Armenia’s response.
Special Adviser on Genocide Prevention, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, issued a statement reiterating her concerns about the situation in the South Caucasus region. He explained that the images of ethnic Armenians leaving the country for fear of identity violence are truly alarming.
The Secretary-General’s spokesman said that they are in contact with the Government of Azerbaijan to discuss issues related to respect for international humanitarian law, protection of civilians and humanitarian principles.
More than 30% of all food in the world ends up in the trash
A billion tons of food are wasted every year while 783 million people around the world go hungry.
To raise awareness of this issue, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) sounded the alarm about the losses the evening before. 13% of the world’s available food is lost in the supply chain, before the products even hit the shelves, and another 17% is wasted in households and retail.
Authorities say stopping food waste increases food security, saves resources and helps reduce our carbon footprint.
The organizations called on the public and private sectors as well as consumers to take urgent action.
*The UN Expert Mechanism on Promoting Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement* was launched by the Human Rights Council in July 2021 to, among other things, make recommendations on concrete measures needed to promote access to justice, accountability and reparation to ensure excessive abuse of violence and other human rights abuses committed by law enforcement officials against Africans and people of African descent.