United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance Doudou Diene opened his eight-city tour on May 21 in Harlem, at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, at the invitation of the Brooklyn-based December 12th Movement International Secretariat.
Before introducing the guest of honor, attorney Roger Wareham placed the event into its proper context. “If not for Malcolm X and his analysis and demand that our struggle for civil rights be seen as a struggle for human rights, we would not be here today,” Wareham said.
In a 1964 interview in the Monthly Review, Malcolm X explained his reason for saying that Blacks in America should see their struggle as a human rights issue. “Once the Civil Rights Movement is expanded to a human rights movement, our African brothers, Asian brothers and Latin American brothers can place it before the agenda of the [United Nations’] General Assembly, and Uncle Sam has no more to say about it.”
Special rapporteur is the title given to individuals working on behalf of the United Nations without salary and with a mandate from the U.N.’s Geneva-based Human Rights Council to investigate, monitor and recommend solutions to human rights problems. They are appointed for a three-year term that can be extended for a second three years.
According to the U.N., these experts are of high moral character, recognized as having competence in the field of human rights and able to function independently of governments. However, a special rapporteur may only visit nations that have agreed to invite them.
“I asked the U.S. government to invite me for two reasons,” stated Diene. He said, first, his predecessor issued a report that is over 10 years old, and second, he was interested in Sen. Barack Obama’s candidacy and what role racism may play in the upcoming election. “It is important to see how the United States is handling its legacy of racism,” said Diene.
Diene’s report, with recommendations for action, will be presented to the Human Rights Council and General Assembly in the spring of 2009, at which time the United States will have the opportunity to respond to his findings.
“In this election year, the eyes of the world will be turned toward America and its longstanding promise to end racial and ethnic inequalities,” stated Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Human Rights Program, in a press release.
Observers say that the U.N. has almost no clout when it comes to U.S. domestic affairs and that the U.N. is widely perceived by many in the United States as interfering. The United States is not a member of the 41-member Human Rights Council, but does have observer status.
When the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Zalmay Khalilzad, was asked by reporters for his opinion of Diene’s visit, he said, “I think it is more important for the U.N. Human Rights Council to spend time on real problems and the problems of violations of human rights of countries that are notorious violators.”
The first speaker at the May 21 event at the Schomburg was Valerie Bell, mother of Sean Bell. She said police brutality was a type of racism. “We can no longer view the police as our protectors,” Bell said.
Dr. Adelaide Sanford, vice chancellor of the N.Y. State Board of Regents, told Diene, “There is racism in the education system” in New York City and in the state “manifested by the failure to include the true history of America in the curriculum.”
“Racism is the system; and it has been in place since the beginning of this country,” stated Dr. Esmeralda Simmons of Medgar Evers College.
Ramona Africa, minister of communications for the Philadelphia-based MOVE organization and the only adult to survive the 1985 massacre at MOVE families at the hands of the mayor and police department, told Diene, “The world needs to know about this racist system.”
Speaking on behalf of political prisoners such as Mumia Abu Jamal and the “San Francisco 8” was attorney Tariq Salim Warren. He said racism was at the bottom of “what happens on a daily basis to Blacks who are brought before the courts.”
Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid spoke on behalf of Muslim immigrants, while Dahoud Andre noted the many issues facing Haitian immigrants in the United States.
One of the most emotional testimonies came from Vanessa James, a Queens mother, who said her 6-year-old daughter, Amber, was taken from her home back in August 2007 by ACS [Administration for Children’s Services]. “They said we took her to the doctor too much,” James told Diene.
Diene is scheduled to wrap up his tour in Washington, D.C., on June 6. In between there will be stops in Chicago, Ill.; Omaha, Neb.; Los Angeles, Calif.; New Orleans, La.; and Puerto Rico.
