|
|
 |
|
 Saturday, February 03, 2007 |
UN rights experts call for global ban on racial profiling
Bernard Hibbitts at 12:35 PM ET
[JURIST] The UN Working Group of Experts on People of Africa Descent [official website] Friday called for a global ban on racial profiling [JURIST news archive] at the conclusion of its annual 5-day session [background materials]. The group urged "states to clearly define and adopt explicit legislative provisions banning racial profiling," a practice which European expert Joe Frans described as being "widespread, yet remains little documented and not clearly prohibited under European law." The group found that "systematic and historic targeting" of persons of African descent contributes to the stigmatization and stereotype "of persons of African descent as having a propensity to criminality." The group also noted a greater reliance on racial profiling following the September 11 suicide attacks on the United States. The working group stated [text, PDF] that "the explicit targeting of specific groups by law enforcement officials violates a number of provisions" of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) [text]. The group also described racial profiling as "a new term for an old practice [formerly known as] institutional racism and discrimination."
The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent was established by the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights [official website] in 2002 following the 2001 World Conference Against Racism to study and address issues concerning the well-being of people of African descent. Civil rights groups in the US have recently been pushing Democratic lawmakers [JURIST report] to reconsider a bill banning racial profiling by any US federal, state or local government entity. Reuters has more.
Link |
e-mail | print | subscribe |
JURIST news archive | © JURIST
| For a one-stop snapshot of the latest legal news that matters, with breaking documents, new legal videos, live law-related webcasts, commentary by expert law professors and more - all updated through the day in real time, with no ads and no registration barriers - visit JURIST's homepage and check back often... |
|
|
| ABOUT | |
|
|
This is the emergency backup of JURIST's flagship Paper Chase legal news weblog. It's only active when the main service is disrupted by technical difficulties and is only maintained for that duration. We apologize for any inconvenience and hope to have regular service restored soon.
|
|
|
