(Geneva) A team of United Nations experts specializing in racism, created after the 2020 death of African-American George Floyd during a police intervention, announced on Friday that it would travel to the United States next week. .
The team, which is called the “Expert Mechanism to Promote Racial Justice and Equality in Policing,” said it would travel to Washington, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis and New York during his two-week visit.
This group of three independent investigators will engage government officials at the federal, state and local levels, law enforcement authorities, civil society organizations, as well as people and communities affected by racism, said the structure. in a press release.
The experts will also visit places of detention during this visit, which will take place from April 24 to May 5.
“We want to get first-hand insight into the lived experience of people of African descent in the United States,” said Juan Mendez, one of the experts, quoted in the press release.
The team will review existing laws, policies and current practices to regulate the use of force by police, as well as their compliance with international law standards, the statement continued.
The experts will “make recommendations on the concrete measures necessary to ensure access to justice, accountability and punishment for the excessive use of force and other human rights violations committed by officials of the policing against Africans and people of African descent in the United States,” he said.
This mechanism was created by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2021, a year after the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer, to investigate accusations of racially motivated police violence around the world.