At an emotion-laden UN review of its record on Friday, Washington promised to improve its efforts to combat racial discrimination, but officials ignored requests for compensation for decades of systemic racism. Desiree Cormier Smith, who was recently named as the first US special envoy for racial equity and justice, said, “We need to continue to make strong, concerted efforts to eliminate the scourge of racial discrimination in our country.”
She emphasised Washington’s commitment to “eliminating systemic racism” in her address to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), but she also noted that there was “so much left to do.” At the two days of hearings in Geneva, Cormier Smith, who is herself of African American origin, co-chaired a sizable, diverse US delegation. She stated that “for many of us,” the matter was “deeply personal.”
An international treaty on eradicating all forms of racial discrimination, which the United States adopted in 1994, is evaluated by a panel of 18 independent experts. The committee questioned the US representatives on subjects such as the treatment of migrants and indigenous people, the rise in hate speech, and police deaths of black people. In their inquiries, other committee members also brought up the subject of restitution.
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However, despite spending hours answering the committee’s questions, the US officials did not address the issue before the hearing’s allotted time was up. They were given 48 hours to respond in writing. On August 30, the committee is expected to release its conclusions. Many of the human rights activists who had travelled to Geneva to witness the hearings and brief the CERD ahead of the assessment praised the committee for pressuring the US to pay reparations but bemoaned the lack of response.
(with inputs from agencies)
