GENEVA — The United Nations decided on Tuesday to set up a panel of experts to investigate systemic racism in policing against people of African descent, adding international weight to demands in the United States for accountability for police killings of African Americans, and reparations for victims. A panel of three experts in law enforcement and human rights will have a three-year mandate to investigate the root causes and effects of systemic racism in policing, including the legacies of slavery and colonialism, and to make recommendations for change. The panel is the outgrowth of a resolution by African countries that built on a report released this month by the U.N. human rights office. The report analyzed the deaths of 190 people of African descent, mostly in the United States, detailing the lack of accountability for police killings and urging states to pursue change. There is “an urgent need to confront the legacies of enslavement, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, colonialism and successive racially discriminatory policies and systems, and to seek reparatory justice,” said Michelle Bachelet, the U.N.’s human rights chief, in presenting that report to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday.

Source: International New York Times July 13, 2021 21:22 UTC