Washington criticized over rights violations

GENEVA — A United Nations-backed panel of independent experts focusing on racial discrimination says racist hate speech by United States political leaders, along with a crackdown on immigration in the country, has led to "grave human rights violations".

The Geneva-based Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued its decision on Wednesday and urged the US to suspend immigration enforcement operations at, and near, schools, hospitals and faith-based institutions.

The decision, made under the committee's early warning protocol, is not legally binding but seeks to hold a country — in this case, the US — to its own international commitments.

The committee said it was also "deeply disturbed" by the use of derogatory and dehumanizing language around migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers. Committee members attributed a reported rise in racial discrimination to "racist hate speech" targeting those groups but did not point to any specific data.

Besides speech, there is also concern about the influence of politicians and other public figures weaponizing stereotypes to incite hate crimes and discrimination.

"Portraying them as criminals or as a burden, by politicians and influential public figures at the highest level, particularly the president", the committee said in a news release, "may incite racial discrimination and hate crimes".

Incumbent President Donald Trump and former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama have been in office when the UN condemned systemic racism, hate and discrimination. However, the panel this time specifically cited Trump's speech as part of the problem. They did not single out Biden or Obama for their rhetoric.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with US Customs and Border Protection, was also singled out for racially profiling people of color and conducting identity checks that often seemed arbitrary.

"This United Nations assessment is just as useless as their broken escalator, and their extreme bias continues to prove why no one takes them seriously," said White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales, who highlighted the administration's work reducing crime and securing the US border.

"No one cares what the biased United Nations' so-called 'experts' think, because Americans are living in a safer, stronger country than ever before," she added.

8 deaths in 3 months

In the report, the committee alleges the US is not living up to its obligations as a party in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which the UN adopted in 1965.

The report said incidents involving "discriminatory, dangerous and violent methods" have left eight people dead in the past three months, including Alex Pretti and Renee Good, two US citizens protesting in Minnesota. Pretti and Good died in separate shootings at the hands of federal agents during Operation Metro Surge.

The use of lethal force in those two cases was tantamount to "arbitrary deprivation of life and other gross violations of international human rights law", the panel stated.

Migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers who are detained also deserve humane and equal treatment free from discrimination under the Convention. However, these groups have been denied basic essential services, including healthcare, education and social support, the report said.

Agencies Via Xinhua

The committee is calling on the US to review whether its immigration policies abide by international human rights law.