Over and over the United States has made itself the punching bag of public ridicule and scorn, for its incorrigible human rights record. The United Nations, in its universal periodic review (UPR), took issue with this and pulled no punches when it came to putting those problems in US delegates faces.
Alba Morales, an investigator at Human Rights Watch told Al Jazeera, “I’m not surprised that the world’s eyes are focused on police issues in the U.S.”
“Use of excessive force by police was a major part of this year’s UPR, and the fact that we still don’t have a reliable national figure to know how many people are killed by police or what the racial breakdown is of those people is a travesty,” said Morales. “A nation as advanced as the U.S. should be able to gather that number.”
Nations expressed their concerns that civil rights in America were in danger and that more should be done to combat the problems plaguing policing in the United States.
“Chad considers the United States of America to be a country of freedom, but recent events targeting black sectors of society have tarnished its image,” Awada Angui, a member of the U.N. delegation to Chad, said.
According to Al Jazeera:
Pakistan, Russia, China and Turkey were among the most vociferous of the member states, with Russia informing the U.S. that “the human rights situation in the country had seriously deteriorated recently” before presenting seven recommendations to the U.S. delegation.
What once stood as an example before the world of the power of free democratic People is now being torn down by the viciousness of callous bigotry.
