United Nations Will Investigate America for Racism
"So help me God, it gets more and more preposterous..."
-- John Cheever
Cross posted from Radarsite
http://radarsite.blogspot.com/2008/05/httpwww_20.html
From an original article in the NY Sun
http://www.nysun.com/news/foreign/united-nations-will-investigate-united-states-racism
By BENNY AVNI, Staff Reporter of the Sun
By BENNY AVNI, Staff Reporter of the Sun
May 17, 2008
UNITED NATIONS - As an African American politician is set to assume for the first time in the country’s history the leadership of a major political party, a Geneva-based United Nations human rights investigator plans to come here next week to investigate whether racism plays a role in the presidential campaign, according to a statement released yesterday.
The special rapporteur on “contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance,” Doudou Diène of Senegal, will arrive in America Monday for a two-week tour that will take him to Washington, New York, Chicago, Omaha, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, according to the statement.
Mr. Diene “is scheduled to hold meetings with representatives of the government, both at national and local levels, and with members of the legislative and judiciary branches,” the statement said. He will also hobnob with “non-governmental organizations, community members, representatives of political parties, academics, and other organizations and individuals working in the field of racism and discrimination.”
America has accepted Mr. Diene’s request for an investigation. “As an open society, we will not shy away from investigation of our practice,” a spokesman for the American mission to the United Nations, Benjamin Chang, said. “We need to lead by example” in the field of openness to outside investigation, he added.
Last March a special Human Rights Council panel demanded an end to “racial profiling” of Americans of Arab, Muslim, and South Asian descent and to ensure “immigrants and non-nationals are not mistreated,” Reuters reported. It also criticized the use of the death penalty, which it said may be racially-based.
Rapporteurs are independent experts, and they report to the Human Rights Council – a U.N. organ that since its creation two years ago has been heavily criticized in America for concentrating most of its work on Israel.
Last week the council failed to convene a meeting to address the growing human devastation in Burma. America has declined to run for a seat on the 47-member council, but it is the largest contributor to its budget. The General Assembly is expected to hold an election for new membership on the Human Rights Council next week.
Mr. Diene “is scheduled to hold meetings with representatives of the government, both at national and local levels, and with members of the legislative and judiciary branches,” the statement said. He will also hobnob with “non-governmental organizations, community members, representatives of political parties, academics, and other organizations and individuals working in the field of racism and discrimination.”
America has accepted Mr. Diene’s request for an investigation. “As an open society, we will not shy away from investigation of our practice,” a spokesman for the American mission to the United Nations, Benjamin Chang, said. “We need to lead by example” in the field of openness to outside investigation, he added.
Last March a special Human Rights Council panel demanded an end to “racial profiling” of Americans of Arab, Muslim, and South Asian descent and to ensure “immigrants and non-nationals are not mistreated,” Reuters reported. It also criticized the use of the death penalty, which it said may be racially-based.
Rapporteurs are independent experts, and they report to the Human Rights Council – a U.N. organ that since its creation two years ago has been heavily criticized in America for concentrating most of its work on Israel.
Last week the council failed to convene a meeting to address the growing human devastation in Burma. America has declined to run for a seat on the 47-member council, but it is the largest contributor to its budget. The General Assembly is expected to hold an election for new membership on the Human Rights Council next week.
A note from Radarsite: Could this poor world of ours be any more topsy-turvy than it already is?The United Nations, this once-relevant world body, this much heralded promise for the future of mankind has slowly but surely become little more than a pitiful spectacle of corruption and compromise. A monumentally ponderous and inept Tower of Babel filled with incompetents and villians, falling over one another to promote the evil machinations of petty tyrants and Islamist thugs.
And now, my friends, in this latest episode of this ongoing farce, we are obliged to suffer the national indignity of an arbitrary investigation into our American systems of social justice. We are going to be evaluated by special rapporteur Doudou Dieneto. He will be touring the US to see if we measure up to those universal standards of human rights -- as exemplified by his native country of Senegal.
So, torn between laughter and tears, let's take a quick look at this symbol of national integrity called Senegal.
Senegal
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2003
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
February 25, 2004
Government forces were responsible for several deaths during the year, and several disappearances from previous years remained unsolved. At times, police tortured and beat suspects during questioning and arbitrarily arrested and detained persons. Prison conditions were poor. Impunity remained a problem. Lengthy pretrial detention largely due to an overburdened judiciary is a problem. Human rights advocates and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) continued to report a decrease in arbitrary arrests and random violence in connection with the Casamance insurgency. The Government, at times, limited the freedoms of speech and association. Domestic violence and discrimination against women, female genital mutilation (FGM), child labor and trafficking in persons remained problems.There were reports that rebel MFDC forces committed killings, torture, and rape.
Intimidation/ fear of enforced disappearance: Yahya DanfaSenegal/Gambia: Intimidation/ fear of enforced disappearance: Yahya Danfa
Topsy-turvy world...
