US criticised for lack of accountability on rights issues

A US delegation was criticised at the UNHRC over "severe lack of accountability rooted in systemic racist policies in human rights issues" that has recently triggered unrest among the minority communities.
"Most of the problems raised by member states in the UPR review of the US reflected a common theme of an embedded racist structure with no real mechanisms for accountability," said Paula C Johnson, law professor and co-director of the project Cold Case Justice Initiative (CCJI) project at Syracuse University.
She was speaking at a press conference after the US' Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
The UPR is periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 member states at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

Johnson pointed out the lack of action in the last seven years under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act passed in 2008 and the recent Rekia Boyd case in Chicago where a police officer was pronounced not guilty of killing an unarmed black 22-year-old woman.
Headed by US ambassador to the Council Keith Harper and acting US legal advisor Mary McLeod, the US delegation was grilled at its second UPR about police tactics and brutality as well as the disproportionate impact on minorities.

The questions from 117 country representatives who participated in the review "showed broad global concern that the US criminal justice system has deep flaws that need to be promptly addressed, particularly with regard to racial disparities," said Alba Morales of Human Rights Watch.

Namibia representative Gladice Pickering urged Washington to "fix the broken justice system that continues to discriminate... Despite recent waves of protest over racial profiling and police killings of unarmed black men."
The FBI's Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act -- Cold Case Initiative -- is an effort to identify and investigate racially-motivated murders committed before December 31, 1969 in the US.
The CCJI has identified over 300 suspicious racist killings not on the list of FBI's unsolved racist killings.
The US has added four new cases and closed all but 10 of the 122 cases identified, including the Johnnie Mae Chappell case in which a mother of 10 was gunned down by four men who wanted to kill the first black person they found, said the American law professor.

"I came here to raise awareness about this issue (of killing unarmed black people). They say guilty should be punished. I want them to show us instead of telling us," said Martinez Sutton, brother of Rekia Boyd, amid heavy sobs.
"Justice Department is more concerned about making a settlement with police departments for better practices instead of bringing individual civil rights charges against police officers," said Johnson of US' proposal of enhanced police dash boards and body-worn cameras.
Lisa Madigan, Attorney General of Illinois, had told the UNHRC yesterday: "US maintains human rights obligations at all levels. Illinois maintains a robust department of human rights to secure for all individuals freedom from unlawful discrimination.