UN panel says racist hate speech by Trump and other US leaders has led to human rights violations
GENEVA (AP) — Racist hate speech by U.S. President Donald Trump and other American political leaders, as well as a crackdown on immigration in the United States, has led to “serious human rights violations,” says a U.N.-backed panel of independent experts focusing on racial discrimination.
The Geneva-based Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued its resolution Wednesday, urging the United States to suspend enforcement operations against immigrants in and near schools, hospitals and faith-based institutions.
The decision, taken under the committee’s early warning protocol, is not legally binding but is intended to hold a country (in this case, the United States) to its own international commitments.
The committee also said it was “deeply disturbed” by the use of derogatory and inhumane language about immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Committee members attributed the reported increase in racial discrimination to “racist hate speech” targeting these groups but did not point to any specific data. Alongside the speech, there are also concerns about the impact of politicians and other public figures weaponizing stereotypes to encourage hate crimes and discrimination.
“Portraying them as criminals or burdens by politicians and influential public figures at the highest level, especially the President, can encourage racial discrimination and hate crimes,” the committee said in a press release.
Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama were in office alongside Trump when the UN condemned systemic racism, hatred and discrimination. But this time, the panel specifically cited Trump’s speech as part of the problem. They did not single out Biden or Obama for their rhetoric.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, along with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, were singled out for racially profiling people of color and conducting ID checks that often appear arbitrary.
“This United Nations assessment is as useless as broken escalators, and its extreme prejudices continue to prove why no one takes them seriously,” said White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales, noting Trump’s work to reduce crime and secure the US border.
“No one cares what the biased United Nations so-called ‘experts’ think, because Americans live in a safer, stronger country than ever before,” he added.
In the report, the committee alleges that the United States has failed to fulfill its obligations as a party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which the UN adopted in 1965. The report stated that incidents involving “discriminatory, dangerous and violent methods” in the past three months led to the deaths of eight people, including two US citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, who were protesting in Minnesota. Pretti and Good were shot and killed separately by federal agents during Operation Subway Surge.
The panel said the use of lethal force in these two cases was tantamount to “arbitrary deprivation of life and other grave violations of international human rights law.”
Detained immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers also deserve humane and equal treatment without discrimination under the Convention. However, the report notes that these groups are deprived of basic essential services, including health, education and social support.
The committee calls on the United States to review whether its immigration policies comply with international human rights law. This should include suspending immigration enforcement operations, including schools, faith-based institutions and hospitals, removing “discriminatory measures” related to asylum procedures, and taking measures to ensure that immigration agencies cannot access personal data in government databases.
But it is unclear whether the UN can actually implement these recommendations.
This is not the first time the delegation has criticized the United States for racism and discrimination. He did so again in 2014, following widespread Black Lives Matter protests against the police shooting deaths of Michael Brown and other victims, and again in 2020, following the killing of George Floyd.
Also in 2020, a different UN human rights body heard similar arguments from a special rapporteur on contemporary racism, discrimination and xenophobia.
The Trump administration has made mass deportations a key part of its second-term agenda, launching a wave of immigration restrictions and increased enforcement in many cities across the country. The crackdown has led to a rise in immigrant detentions and growing concerns from critics about the administration’s tactics in both detention and execution.
The administration cited security and economic concerns as reasons for the pressure.
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination counts 18 independent experts from around the world as members, and they monitor the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The United States ratified the convention in 1994.
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Tang reported from Phoenix. AP writer Collin Binkley in Washington contributed.
