UN expert backs U.S. schools on "offensive" slavery textbook ban

A team of United Nations (UN) human rights experts on Thursday issued a statement saying they backed a United States school district which removed an "offensive" textbook on slavery from classrooms.

The UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent said in the statement that the example set by Norwalk School District in the U.S. state of Connecticut should be followed across the United States and other countries.

According to the statement, in a chapter of the textbook, it reads that slaves in Connecticut were often treated like family members, and were "taught to be Christian" and sometimes how to read and write.

The chapter was being studied by pupils aged nine and 10 until district officials removed it on the grounds that its depiction of slavery was inaccurate, simplistic, and offensive.

"The chapter discussing the history of slavery in Connecticut is a distortion of the true nature of enslavement," said human rights expert Ricardo Sunga, who currently heads the expert panel set up by the UN Human Rights Council to study racial discrimination worldwide.

"Enslaved people in Connecticut, like those in the American South before the civil war, were trafficked against their will, had their fundamental right to life, liberty and property taken away from them, faced similar levels of exploitation, and were subjected to the most dehumanizing treatment imaginable," Sunga said.

Students of history need to know that enslaved people were never categorized as family, he added.

The working group also urged other departments of education and school districts in the United States and other countries to review textbooks and other educational materials to see whether they depict slavery accurately, and to remove them from classrooms where appropriate.

The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent was established in 2002 by the Commission on Human Rights, following the World Conference against Racism held in Durban in 2001. Endit