The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, denounced, on Wednesday 17 June, the current racial violence which is "the legacy of the slave trade and colonialism", saying she is in favor of "repairs in various forms".

"We must make amends for centuries of violence and discrimination, including through official apologies, truth processes and reparations in various forms," ​​she said.

# George Floyd's killing has become emblematic of the excessive use of disproportionate force by law enforcement - against people of African descent, against people of color, and against indigenous peoples & racial & ethnic minorities in countries across the globe. # FightRacism

- Michelle Bachelet (@mbachelet) June 17, 2020

Michelle Bachelet was speaking during a debate organized by the UN in Geneva at the request of African countries on racism and police violence, after the death of George Floyd in the United States. "This gratuitous act of brutality has come to symbolize systemic racism which harms millions of people of African descent," she said.

Other senior UN officials and the brother of George Floyd strongly denounced the violence and discrimination suffered "for centuries" by Africans and people of African descent in the United States and elsewhere in the world.

George Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd spoke in a video calling for "an independent commission to investigate the murders of blacks by police in America and the violence used against the protesters".

"Establishing the facts and circumstances relating to systemic racism"

Before the opening of the proceedings, some twenty senior United Nations officials of African descent or descent, including the head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had also personally signed a declaration for state that "mere condemnation of expressions and acts of racism was not enough".  

The Council is to pronounce on the draft resolution presented by the African group condemning "the discriminatory and violent racial practices of the police against Africans and people of African origin and the endemic structural racism of the penal system, to the States -United States and other parts of the world. "

From poor health care to inadequate education, limited job advancement, refusals of housing and mortgage loans, ill-treatment by officials, practical restrictions on the right to vote & over-incarceration, racial discrimination harms millions of people. # FightRacism

- Michelle Bachelet (@mbachelet) June 17, 2020

In its initial version, the text called for the establishment of an independent international commission of inquiry, a high-level structure generally reserved for major crises, such as the Syrian conflict.

A new version of the text is content to ask Michelle Bachelet "to establish the facts and the circumstances relating to systemic racism, to alleged violations of international human rights law and to ill-treatment against Africans and people of African origin ".

Andrew Bremberg, American ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, underlined his country's "transparency" in the fight against racial discrimination and injustice, citing the police reform launched the previous day by Donald Trump.

With AFP

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