ACLU Comment on U.N. Passage of Resolution on Police Brutality

GENEVA — The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) today passed a resolution ordering a report on police brutality, system racism, and repression of protests. The resolution, as passed, removes mentions of the United States.

Below is comment from Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU’s Human Rights Program:

“It is absurd that the final resolution passed by the United Nations strips mention of the United States, where police kill people, particularly Black people, at alarmingly higher rates compared to other developed countries. The United Nations needs to do its job — not get bullied out of doing it — and hold the United States accountable. The country must face independent global scrutiny for its oppression of Black people."

The original resolution, which was introduced by the 54 countries of Africa, came after the ACLU, joined by over 650 rights groups and the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Philando Castile, and Michael Brown, urged the UNHRC to swiftly convene a special session to investigate the escalating situation of police violence and repression of protests in the United States.

A video of Philonise Floyd, George Floyd’s brother, urging the U.N. to intervene is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEkTKLPsMGY.