UNITED STATES PRESENTS REPORT TO COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION ON COMPLIANCE WITH CONVENTION

CERD
59th session
3 August 2001
Afternoon


The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this afternoon started its examination of an initial report presented by the Government of the United States on how that country was implementing the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Introducing the report, Michael E. Parmly, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour of the United States, affirmed that over the past half century, his country had taken several major steps to reverse the racial segregation and discrimination that had previously been prevalent in many parts of the country. In doing so, progressively and in several discreet stages, the country had deliberately and carefully constructed a solid legal framework to fight racism and racial discrimination, he said.

Another member of the delegation, Ralph F. Boyd, Assistant Attorney-General for Civil Rights of the Department of State, said that racial discrimination continued to be a problem that should be confronted in the United States; race was too often a factor in decisions related to whether to rent a home to a person of another racial or ethnic group, whether to hire an applicant for a job, and whether to stop and question a person suspected of committing a crime.

Yuri A. Reshetov, the Committee Expert who served as country rapporteur to the report of the United States, said that police "stop-and-search" operations were motivated racially; and that American prisons were filled with persons fighting racial discrimination. He said that the number of blacks in the prison population was higher than other racial group.

Mr. Reshetov also said that the problem of capital punishment continued to be a subject of concern; and that the number of blacks put to death was disproportionately higher compared with white criminals.

Other Committee members asked the delegation, among other things, about the measures the Government of the United States had taken to counter the Ku-Klux-Klan (KKK) movement, which openly manifested its idea of white supremacy, in contravention of article 4 of the Convention.

Several Committee Experts commented on the position of the United States concerning its reservation on article 4 of the Convention that required States parties to declare as an offence punishable by law the dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority.

Also participating in the discussion were the following Committee members: Carlos Lechuga Hevia, Luis Valencia Rodriguez, Regis de Gouttes, Francois Lonseny Fall and Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr.

The delegation of the United States was also composed of Lorne W. Craner, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour; Christopher Camponovo, Office of the Assistant Legal Advisor for Human Rights and Refugees, State Department; James B. Foley, Charge d'Affaires, United States Permanent Mission at Geneva; James C. Ho, Counsel to the Assistant Attorney-General, Department of Justice; T. Michael Peay, Counsellor for Legal Affairs, United States Permanent Mission at Geneva; Cheryl Sim, Counsellor for Political and Specialized Agencies Affairs, United States Permanent Mission at Geneva; and Andre Surena, Assistant Legal Advisor for Human Rights and Refugees, State Department.

The United States is among the 157 States parties to the Convention and as such it is obligated to submit periodic reports to the Committee on how it was giving effect to the provisions of the treaty.

When the Committee reconvenes at 10 a.m. on Monday, 6 August, it will continue its debate on the report of the United States.

Summary of Report of United States

The initial report, which is contained in document CERD/C/351/Add.1, enumerates the administrative, judicial, legislative and other measures taken by the State party to give effect to its undertakings under the Convention. It says that since 17 June 1997, the Federal Government has been engaged in a major review of domestic race issues. The United States has struggled to overcome the legacies of racism, ethnic intolerance and destructive policies relating to Native Americans, and has made much progress in the past half a century. Nonetheless, issues relating to race, ethnicity and national origin continue to play a negative role in American society. Racial discrimination persists against various groups, despite the progress made through the enactment of major civil rights legislation. The path towards true racial equality has been uneven, and substantial barriers still have to be overcome.

The report notes that even though United States law is in conformity with the obligations assumed by the United States under the treaty, the society has not yet fully achieved the Convention's goals. Reflecting the multi-ethnic, multi-racial and multicultural nature of the United States today, the private sector plays an important role in combatting racism in the country through activities and programmes conducted by non-governmental groups. In addition, the United States seeks to enforce the established rights of individuals to protection against discrimination based upon race, colour, national origin, religion and gender, among other things, in virtually every aspect of social and economic life.

Federal law prohibits discrimination in the areas of education, employment, public accommodation, transportation, voting, and housing and mortgage credit access, as well as in the military and in programmes receiving federal financial assistance, the report says. At both the federal and state levels, the United States has developed a broad range of legal and regulatory provisions and administrative systems to protect and to promote respect for civil rights.

The report further notes that the United States has long been a vigorous supporter of the international campaign against racism and racial discrimination. Indeed, it will play an active role in the upcoming World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance to be held in South Africa. Towards that end, the United States is engaged in a domestic preparatory process that will invite the involvement of state and local government officials as well as academia and civil society.

It is also noted that the last half-century of progress has provided the United States with useful perspective from which to offer insights to other countries with diverse and growing minority populations. By the same token, the people and Government of the United States can learn from the experiences of others.

In its conclusion, the report says that over the years, the United States has worked hard to overcome a legacy of racism and racial discrimination, and it has done so with substantial success. Nevertheless, significant obstacles remain. But, as a vibrant, multicultural democracy, the United States -- at all levels of government and civil society -- continually re-examines and re-evaluates its successes and failures, having the elimination of racism and racial discrimination as its ultimate goal.

Introductory Statements on United States Report

MICHAEL E. PARMLY, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour of the United States, affirmed that over the past half century, his country had taken several major steps to reverse the racial segregation and discrimination that had previously been prevalent in many parts of the country. In doing so, progressively and in several discreet stages, the country had deliberately and carefully constructed a solid legal framework to fight racism and racial discrimination.

Mr. Parmly said that the report gave considerable detail about the country's extensive legal protection and the progress it had made on those issues at the federal, state and local levels. The report was available on the Internet. In preparing the report, the Government had solicited contributions from many non-governmental organizations, especially those that were active in the areas of civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights.

Mr. Parmly further said that the United States took its obligations under the Convention very seriously. Ratification of the Convention had been an important milestone for his country, and the United States fully supported the goals of the Convention. In many important respects, the Convention restated the most important objectives of the country's domestic civil rights laws.

The United States was fully committed to being a world leader in the cause of human rights, Mr. Parmly said, adding that the United States had been a party to the most important human rights accords, and had been actively involved in the issues raised under those accords. The United States' intensive involvement in the ongoing preparatory process for the upcoming World Conference against Racism was further evidence of its commitment to creating conditions of equality of opportunity and access for all people.

Mr. Parmly said that his country recognized that racism could do harm to individuals and to society; it was a universal problem; no nation was immune from it; and that was why the nations of the world should work together to tear down racial walls and to build societies in which every man, women and child had the opportunity to develop his or her talents to the fullest.

RALPH F. BOYD, Assistant Attorney-General for Civil Rights of the State Department of the United States, told the Committee that the political landscape of the United States had changed dramatically over the past several decades. In 1968, there were only 3 black mayors in the entire southern part of the United States; by 1996, there were 209. As late as 1970, there were no African-Americans holding elective office in state government in some states. However, the whole situation had now changed with more blacks entering Congress and government services.

Over the last 40 years, civil rights in the United States had undergone a transformation, Mr. Boyd continued to say. In a very real sense the people had progressed from aspiration to expectation. More than half of the population had never lived in an United States without the protection of major civil rights laws, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the voting Rights Act of 1965. Those and other important federal civil laws were intended to protect citizens of the United States of all races from racial discrimination perpetuated not only by the Government, but also by individuals and private parties, particularly in such areas as employment, education, public accommodations, voting, housing, lending and contracting.

Mr. Boyd continued to say that there was considerable good news emanating from the century-old struggle of the United States against racism and bigotry. Its record of protecting civil rights and fighting discrimination was an increasingly strong one, and one that the authorities pledged to uphold and enforce. The authorities were committed to improving even more the nation's civil rights laws. The fight to eradicate racism required continued and constant vigilance.

Racial discrimination continued to be a problem that should be confronted in the United States, Mr. Boyd said. Race was too often a factor in decisions related to whether to rent a home to a person of another racial or ethnic group, whether to hire an applicant for a job, and whether to stop and question a person suspected of committing a crime. Moreover, while there had been dramatic gains in the education levels achieved by racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, there were still problems that one should address. Today nearly 70 per cent of inner-city fourth graders were unable to read at a basic reading level. In addition, meaningful gaps in income between racial and ethnic groups in America stubbornly persisted, and disparities in the relative health of people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds continued to be a reality in the United States public health profiles.

Mr. Boyd said that the Bush Administration was committed to eliminating the practice of racial profiling. For too long, racial and ethnic minorities in the United States had -- at times -- been subjected to the unfairness and illegality of racial profiling. As a nation, the United States simply could not allow people to be subjected to different treatment because of their race. The President had declared that racial profiling was morally wrong and unlawful, and should be ended.

The Administration protected new immigrants to the United States by vigorously prosecuting those who exploited their vulnerability, Mr. Boyd said. The United States became home to hundreds of thousands of new immigrants every year from virtually every part of the globe. An unacceptably high number of newcomers to the United States suffered at the hands of unscrupulous employers who paid sub-minimum wages or forced employees to work in unsafe conditions. The United States needed to create a more welcoming reception for Hispanics, Asians and other immigrants to the country.

Mr. Boyd said that the problem of trafficking in persons was specially severe. Estimates indicated that 50,000 persons, primarily minority women and children, were trafficked into the United States each year.

Consideration of Report

YURI A. RESHETOV, the Committee Expert who served as country rapporteur to the report of the United States, said the people of the United States had been represented by real human-rights advocates such as Martin Luther King and other renown personalities.

Mr. Reshetov said that once the Convention had been ratified by the United States, it had started to implement the provisions as the report attested in its sincerity to expose the problems persisting in the area of race relations. The report had frankly indicated the impediments and the task to be resolved in the problem of racial discrimination in the country. Further, the report had recognized areas in which more measures were needed, such as in education, housing, and immigration for example.

Racial discrimination still continued to persist in the society, Mr. Reshetov said. Labour relations among the different races was also a problem as it was reported in different documents.

There were important provisions and treaties that had been signed by the native American indigenous people, however, the legal status of those treaties remained to be clearly known, Mr. Roshetov, asking to hear from the delegation on the status of those treaties.

Mr. Reshetov said that positive measures had been taken by the previous Administration and the new one had to strengthen them through legal frameworks, as it was noted by the delegation in its introductory statement.

Mr. Reshetov underlined that the implementation of race-based affirmative action programmes was the obligation of the State party to the Convention, and was not left to the discretion of each State party.

He said that police "stop-and-search" operations were motivated racially. Even prisons in the United States were filled with persons fighting racial discrimination. Moreover, it was reported by some special rapporteurs that the number of blacks in the population of prisons was higher than other racial groups.

The problem of capital punishment had continued to be a subject of concern in many quarters, Mr. Reshetov said. The number of blacks put to death was disproportionately higher compared with white criminals.

Mr. Reshetov said he was satisfied with the statement of the delegation that said that the new Administration was seriously engaged in reinforcing the legal framework concerning racial discrimination.

Ecological protection of the poor should be given due attention, Mr. Reshetov said . In Alaska, for example, there was a strong trend for ecological racism because of the dumping of waste on lands belonging to indigenous people. There was also an alarming situation in many parts of the United States concerning ecological damage that took place in indigenous territories.

Other Committee members also commented on the report. One Expert said that the death penalty was imposed mainly against poor African American individuals who were unable to defend themselves or could not hire lawyers to defend them. The death penalties were also motivated by politics. According to reliable sources, 50 per cent of the populations of United States prisons was made up of African-American people. Their rights to equal opportunity before the law were not respected. Hispanic-Americans were also subjected to similar treatment. Lengthy sentences -- up to one hundred years -- were pronounced against Puerto Ricans who dared to demand to get rid of colonialism in their island. With regard to native American indigenous people, de facto discrimination had been practised in addition to the segregation they were subjected to. The delegation was asked to indicated measures undertaken by the Government in order to comply with the provisions of the Convention in this regard.

Another Expert said that despite the efforts made by the Government of the United States, problems of racial discrimination still persisted as it was indicated in the report. The country was a multi-cultural and multi-racial society where immigrants and children of immigrants lived together. The Experts requested the delegation to revisit the whole legal framework aimed at implementing the provisions of the Convention. It was also recommended that the Government should investigate problems of racial discrimination in education, housing and other areas. The Expert said that "American Apartheid" had been used for the last 50 years in residential segregation against blacks.

An Expert was of the view that the freedom of speech involving the propagation of racist ideas was an offence against the provisions of the Convention. The dissemination of racist ideas, including on the Internet, should not be invoked as freedom of opinion. What measures were contemplated by the authorities of the United States against racist ideas disseminated at the Internet? Were there cases in which courts had dealt with such issues? What measures had been taken in the process of police investigation, which involved racial prejudice? What measures were envisaged to reduce the number of coloured prisoners, such as blacks, Hispanics or American Indians?

A Committee member asked about the measures the Government of the United States had taken to counter the Ku-Klux-Klan (KKK) movement, which often manifested its idea of white supremacy in contravention of article 4 of the Convention.

Another member recalled the hate disseminated in various means against American-Arabs in the United States. The Expert said that it was a very serious situation that the Government of the United State should consider vigorously.

Several Committee Experts also commented on the position of the United States concerning its reservation on article 4 of the Convention that required States parties to declare as an offence punishable by law the dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority.



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