opinion

U.N. human rights experts slam Garner, Brown killings

WASHINGTON — On an almost daily basis, U.S. officials in Washington and around the world issue statements criticizing the human rights records of other countries. Just last week State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf was asked to comment on reports of Kenyan police carrying out extrajudicial killings. "Well, we obviously take such allegations of extrajudicial killings seriously everywhere in the world, certainly, of course, in Kenya as well," she said. "We would urge the Kenyan government to thoroughly investigate all of these reported claims."

Nairobi was probably none too pleased at being told what to do by Washington, but it's still rare for the United States to get a taste of its own medicine. But that's exactly what happened last week, when a group of U.N. experts issued a scathing statement criticizing the treatment of minorities in the United States.

Examining the killings at the hands of police of Michael Brown and Eric Garner — and subsequent grand jury decisions not to indict the officers involved — the experts "voiced deep concern" at the "broader pattern" of what many consider "to be unlawful killings and further examples of lethal force being disproportionately used against young African-American men."

"I am concerned by the grand juries' decisions and the apparent conflicting evidence that exists relating to both incidents," the U.N. special rapporteur on minority issues, Rita Izsák, said in the statement.

"A trial process would ensure that all the evidence is considered in detail and that justice can take its proper course," Izsák said. "The decisions leave many with legitimate concerns relating to a pattern of impunity when the victims of excessive use of force come from African-American or other minority communities."

Mutuma Ruteere, the U.N. special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, added that African Americans continue to be singled out for punishment by American law enforcement. "African Americans are 10 times more likely to be pulled over by police officers for minor traffic offenses than white persons," he said. "Such practices must be eradicated."

Mireille Fanon Mendes France, the head of the U.N.'s working group of experts on people of African descent, sounded an exasperated note, saying that the Brown and Garner cases only add "to our existing concerns over the longstanding prevalence of racial discrimination faced by African Americans."

Christof Heyns, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, went a step further and argued that U.S. laws are enabling the inappropriate use of lethal force. "The laws of many of the states in the U.S. are much more permissive, creating an atmosphere where there are not enough constraints on the use of force," he said, calling for a comprehensive review of such laws and police weaponry and training.

Indeed, U.S. officials have been forced into a series of defensive statements about the handling of the Brown and Garner cases. On Thursday, Harf was asked whether the United States could still be proud of its human rights record, given the recent actions by local police departments. "Absolutely we are. You can both be proud of our record and say where there are ways we can do things better," Harf said. "I would also put our human rights record up against any country's around the world."

To be sure, the United States does in many respects possess a better human rights record than most other countries. But the idiom of human rights hasn't much caught on in America, and few people in the United States describe incidents such as the killings of Brown and Garner as human rights violations, even if that label appears very much deserved.

And what a headache that represents for U.S. officials trying to promote human rights abroad.

Groll is an assistant editor at Foreign Policy.