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Root of police killings of African-Americans lies in lack of accountability: UN experts

Xinhua, July 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

A UN working group issued a statement condemning the recent killings of two African-American men by police in the United States, saying Friday that the root of the problem lay in the lack of accountability for perpetrators of such killings, despite the evidence.

"The working group is monitoring the situation and has repeatedly expressed its concern to the United States government about police killings of African Americans and called for justice," a statement from the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.

According to the working group, the excessive use of force by the police against African Americans in the United States is a "regular occurrence", since African Americans are reportedly shot by officers twice as often as the rate at which white people are shot.

"We call for prompt independent investigations to ensure the perpetrators are prosecuted and punished," Ricardo A. Sunga III, chairperson of the working group and human rights lawyer, said.

The statement came after this week's deaths of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana at the hands of U.S. police officers, and also Thursday's killing of five police officers in downtown Dallas.

"The killings also demonstrate a high level of structural and institutional racism. The United States is far from recognizing the same rights for all its citizens," the statement said, adding that existing measures to address racist crimes motivated by prejudice are insufficient and have failed to stop the killings.

"It is time, now, for the U.S. government to strongly assert that Black lives matter and prevent any further killings as a matter of national priority," the statement concluded.

The UN working group carried out an official visit to the U.S. in January 2016, and it will present a comprehensive report containing its findings and recommendations to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2016. Endit