In a letter made public Friday, the name of the 54 countries of the african Group for the issues of human rights, the ambassador of Burkina Faso to the united Nations in Geneva, Dieudonné Desired Sougouri, has asked the UN body to hold an ” urgent debate on the current violations of the rights of man inspired racial, systemic racism, police brutality and violence against peaceful demonstrations “.
The appeal comes after the family of George Floyd, the families of other victims of police violence, and more than 600 NGOS had called on the Council of human rights to take up urgently the issue of racism and the impunity enjoyed, according to them, the police in the United States.
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“Not an isolated incident” for the countries of the african Group
The Council of human rights of the UN has immediately given the green light for this debate to be held Wednesday 17 June, in the wake of the global mobilization, after the death of George Floyd in the United States. The decision was taken without any of the 47 member countries of the UN body to oppose it, to the recovery of the 43rd session of the Commission on human rights (CHR), which had been interrupted in mid-march by the pandemic Covid-19.
the president of The HRC, the Austrian Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger, said that the meeting would be held Wednesday to 15 hours (13 hours GMT). This type of urgent debate held during a session of the HRC – allows for the adoption of resolutions even as the deadline to submit a draft resolution has expired.
on Monday, the ambassador of Burkina Faso recalled that ” the tragic events of may 25, 2020 at Minneapolis, in the United States, which led to the death of George Floyd triggered protests around the world against the injustice and brutality to which people of african descent face on a daily basis in many parts of the world.” “The death of George Floyd is unfortunately not an isolated incident” he added.
“After the outrage and unanimous general raised by this situation, it would be inconceivable that the Council of human rights does not address this issue in accordance to its mandate,” he said.
Fifth urgent debate
This urgent debate will be only the fifth since the launch of the HRC, in 2006. The previous debates-urgent focused on the israeli intervention against the aid flotilla to Gaza (June 2010), the human rights situation in Syria (march 2012), evaluation of human rights in Syria (may 2013) and the situation in the syrian region of Ghouta, eastern (march 2018). Among the resolutions that are to be discussed by the member States at the end of the week is the launch of a fact-finding mission on the violations of human rights in Libya, called by the Swiss, and which could be validated by the different countries.
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