Video 'From the streets to the UN: impact of activists & victims' families at the UN on anti-Black racism' (ISHR).
After the murder of George Floyd, human rights defenders mobilised at the United Nations Human Rights Council to seek international accountability for Africans and people of African descent as a response to systemic racism, specifically police violence, in the United States and around the globe through UN mechanisms. While a lot of progress needs to be made, there were some awareness-raising efforts that supported accountability and recognition.
Systemic racism is an ever-evolving issue with roots in the transatlantic trade of enslaved Africans and colonialism. In States around the world, there is racism entrenched in their laws, procedures, and day-to-day conduct. This manifests in a myriad of ways, including racist over-policing and violence against Africans and people of African descent, school-to-prison pipelines, intergenerational trauma, hate speech, and more. It is present and must be grounded within a historical context to fully understand the impact on Africans and people of African descent today.
Police violence disproportionately affects Africans and people of African descent around the world. In the United States, modern-day policing is influenced by slave patrols from the 1700s. In Brazil, police use excessive force, mostly against young Black men, resulting in an average of 6,000 people killed every year. People have been outraged by these racist systems and the violence they bring. Human rights defenders (HRDs) have been mobilising for justice in the prevention of and reaction to police violence through the years. The deliberate murder of George Floyd by a police officer in the USA in May 2020 galvanised people worldwide to protest against racism and discrimination and prompted global discussions on racial justice, including at the United Nations.
Human rights defenders have worked for global racial equity at the United Nations for years. In 2001 activists helped to create the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, a document outlining measures that governments can take to combat global racism.
On 25 May 2020, in Minneapolis (Minnesota, USA) the murder of Mr. George Floyd was an intense catalyst in anti-racism movements. Organisations and networks like the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), HRCnet, the US Human Rights Network, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) organised strategy sessions for human rights defenders to voice their expectations for the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in addressing systemic racism and police violence globally. These sessions were vital in the creation of the UN Antiracism Coalition (UNARC), which pushed for the adoption of the “George Floyd resolution”. This resolution created the innovative EMLER mechanism, or the International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement (more information below).
Human rights defenders were vital in the advocacy at the United Nations. Leaders helped to coordinate the strategy sessions, sending a letter to the Human Rights Council, and more. Some defenders that were instrumental in this effort include Salma El Hosseiny, Salimah Hankins, Jamil Dakwar, and Colette Flanagan.
From the mass mobilisation around the world, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) utilised this momentum with United Nations human rights mechanisms, such as the Human Rights Council, the Special Procedures, the Universal Periodic Review and Treaty Bodies. Learn more about those mechanisms in our ‘Learn’ section.
In mobilising for an international inquiry into police violence and systemic racism in the United States, after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, 690 human rights defenders, organisations and networks gathered in solidarity and sent a letter to the Human Rights Council (HRC), through the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), requesting for a special session. This was endorsed by the family members of George Floyd and other victims’ families. As a result, an urgent debate was held in June 2020, and George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd in making a video statement directly to the HRC urging it to establish an independent international commission of inquiry focused on the situation in the United States.
Video: George Floyd's Brother Urges The UN To Investigate Police Killings (ACLU)
The HRC instructed the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report through the resolution 43/1. One year later, in July 2021, the High Commissioner presented a groundbreaking report that is grounded in the lived experiences of families of victims and people of African descent with more than 110 consultations held, 360 people affected consulted and meetings with UN experts. The report used seven emblematic cases: George Floyd (United States), Breonna Taylor (United States), Adama Traoré (France), Luana Barbosa dos Reis Santos (Brazil), João Pedro Mattos Pinto (Brazil), Kevin Clarke (United Kingdom), and Janner García Palomino (Colombia) to highlight recurring context which underlie over 85 percent of police-related fatalities. In the meantime, CSOs continued to mobilise and organise strategies sessions to sustain the advocacy (UNARC was created at that time).
This led to the creation of the so-called ‘George Floyd’ resolution, resolution 47/21, which created an expert investigative mechanism on police violence, instead of a commission of inquiry on the United States, as originally requested by CSOs groups.
State response to the independent inquiry on the United States in the Human Rights Council
Governments have had much to say regarding the civil society mobilisation and anti-racism efforts at the UN Human Rights Council. Some responses were positive, but some created obstacles for racial justice. For example, the United States had major influence (at that time under Trump Administration) in the Council to stop the establishment of an international inquiry on them. Special Procedures representatives called on States to not give in to the pressure, but to ‘adopt…a strong, substantive resolution, as was originally drafted and that is consistent with the clear and unequivocal demands of the families of the victims, civil society, and the independent experts of the Special Procedures rather than a diluted consensus resolution’.
After the presentation of the UN High Commissioner report and with the support of the Africa Group at the HRC, specially South Africa, resolution 47/21 was passed on the 47th session of the Human Rights Council in July 2021. This resolution created the EMLER mechanism mandated to further transformative change for racial justice and equality in the context of law enforcement globally, especially where relating to the legacies of colonialism and the Transatlantic slave trade in enslaved Africans. They are also tasked to investigate Governments’ responses to peaceful anti-racism protests and all violations of international human rights law. This resolution also mandates the High Commissioner for human rights to produce a yearly report on systemic racism and violations of international human rights law against Africans and people of African descent by law enforcement agencies, to contribute to accountability and redress. It also mandated EMLER and OHCHR to present their written annual reports to the Council followed by a debate that prioritises the participation of directly affected individuals and communities.
At the Human Rights Council, civil society continues to hold side events, make statements, and campaign for several resolutions. On 3 October 2022, Colette Flanagan spoke during a side event on the changes that must happen to combat police brutality in the United States.
Video: HRC51 | Collette Flanagan, founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality, at the Human Rights Council (HRC)
Engagement with different multilateral spaces has enabled more visibility for Afro descendant human rights defenders, in the light of police violence. It has also supported long-lasting calls from communities from all the countries in the world, including Indigenous Peoples and land rights defenders, to promote accountability.
Created by the UN General Assembly in 2021, and held annually between Geneva and in New-York, it is considered a victory for civil society and Afro descendant social movements around the world. It was established as a “a consultative mechanism for people of African descent and other relevant stakeholders as a platform for improving the safety and quality of life and livelihoods of people of African descent, as well as an advisory body to the Human Rights Council, in line with the programme of activities for the implementation of the International Decade for People of African Descent and in close coordination with existing mechanisms”. The Forum continues to be an active, participatory and lively space where hundreds of defenders from all over the world gather to discuss important topics for Africans and people of African descent.
Human rights defenders worked with the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to voice their concerns and the urgency in taking action against structural racism targeting Africans and people of African descent.
Ricardo Lamour, is a Haitian Canadian HRD, founder of the organisation ‘Bout du Monde’, advocating in Canada and worldwide against systemic racism. Fellow of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on racial justice issues and community organiser, he tirelessly supports ongoing calls for more recognition, reparation and language justice at the UN and toward its government. His work bridges grassroots organizing and international human rights mechanisms. In addition to co-authoring the Anti-Black Racism in Quebec report submitted under Canada’s UPR in 2023, he submitted a confidential report during the 89th session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), addressing intersecting systemic barriers faced by Black and Indigenous women in Canada.
His engagement with the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery contributed to formal recommendations calling for consultations with communities of African descent and their recognition in Canada’s constitutional and legislative frameworks. The troubling experiences of individuals including HRDs like Ricardo who faced backlash for challenging the use of derogatory language by media professionals; El Jones, unjustly barred from the Supreme Court of Canada for her advocacy; Sarah Jama, who endured severe political and personal repercussions for her peaceful stance on Gaza; and a veteran Black immigration commissioner in Montreal, dismissed for exposing undue interference in asylum decisions, all exemplify a concerning pattern.
While Canada is often seen as a beacon of diversity and inclusion, the lack of recognised efforts for legislative changes concerning People of African Descent, the youngest demographic in the nation, stands in stark contrast to this image. As reported in the groundbreaking JS9 submission to the UPR, there have been extensive accounts of discrimination experienced by Afro-descendant persons in Quebec, the province with the second-largest Black population in Canada. This form of racism is visible in all areas of society but especially in the laws, policies, programmes, decisions and practices of the governments of Quebec and Canada.
The UPR has provided a clear lens through which civil society can see Canada’s commitments and shortfalls. An array of themes emerges from the 332 recommendations Canada received, including on combating racism and discrimination to enforce legal and policy reforms, addressing hate speech and crimes, combating systemic racial profiling, thereby echoing the demands in the CSO report (Canada accepted most of them).
Video: Bout du Monde statement urging Canada to respect its recommendations, showcasing Ricardo Lamour (ISHR)
Special Rapporteur on racism
Defenders have used Special Procedures in their advocacy and among others, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism. Communications have been sent to the United States to denounce police violence during Black Lives Matter protests, with responses received. HRDs participate in their debates, send inputs to their call for inputs and some have met in private with their office to seek justice for specific cases and to denounce racism in their respective countries and communities. Another example of such participation is the organizations Redes da Maré and Conexão G, from Brazil, that delivered a statement in collaboration with ISHR pressing the Brazilian government to carry out deep police reforms in the light of the dialogue with the Special Rapporteur. The rapporteur also completed a country visit in the USA in 2023 and address issues of police violence and called on take more specifically targeted measures to prevent and address hatred against people of African descent.
Working group of Experts on People of African Descent
The Working group of experts on people of African descent hold two annual sessions, publishes thematic and country visit reports, and they also send communications to States on specific cases. Their country visits as well as their interactive dialogues at the HRC where their country visits reports are presented are important spaces for defenders to expose human rights violations, as was the case of the organization INQUEST. During the 54th session of the HRC, they exposed the realities in the UK as it related to systemic racism and law enforcement delivering a powerful statement saying that Black people die disproportionately following police contact, are over-represented in prison, and are more likely to be detained in mental health settings and subject to the use of force.
HRDs have used as well possibilities offered by Treaty Bodies. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) is a UN convention adopted in 1965 (first one in history). Following the death of George Floyd, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination published a recommendation it had been working on for years: Recommendation No. 36 on preventing and combating racial profiling. This timely document received inputs from 15 civil society organizations and was published along with a questionnaire that defines what racial profiling is, gives examples, its impact and much more. Another example is the case of France, in which a family directly impacted by racist police violence used France's periodic review to the Human Rights Committee (which monitors the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to draw attention to the issue, focusing on the case of Adama Traoré (killed in police custody in 2016) and the outcome of the investigation and the proceedings.
Based on the 2021 report on the use of force and violence against people of African descent, OHCHR intensified its activities around non-discrimination and racism, supporting the follow-up on the cases submitted in the report, and awarness-raising on the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, as well as International Decade on People of African descent (2015-2024). Regular calls for inputs are published toward civil society and victims.
Regional mechanisms have also tackled the issue thanks to the mobilisation of defenders. In November 2022, the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) adopted a Resolution on Africa’s Reparations Agenda and the Human Rights of Africans in the Diaspora and People of African Descent Worldwide . The Resolution, inter alia, reaffirmed the 2001 Durban Declaration and Programme of Action as a comprehensive framework addressing racial discrimination, and acknowledged the significance of the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015 – 2024) in advancing recognition for people of African descent worldwide. Following this, 2025 was declared the African Union Year of Reparations, which led the organisation of numerous panels and debates, including resolutions at the NGO forum and during the proceedings of ACHPR.
Because of the political pressure in the Human Rights Council, the independent inquiry into the United States did not occur. Even so, two resolutions passed that had the potential to hold the United States and other States accountable for police violence against Africans and people of African descent:
Read innovative excerpts of the George Floyd resolution here:
GF Resolution Highlights - ISHR Academy/UNARC by CommunicationsSince its creation, EMLER has conducted fact-finding country visits to several countries including Sweden, Italy, the United States, and Brazil, in which we can highlight important achievements*:
*Reported by UNARC, coordinator of the visits in the USA and Brazil.
Video report: US Visit by EMLER (UNARC)
Following intense advocacy work at the HRC that included a private meeting with States, letters to member and observer States to the HRC, a letter to the High Commissioner for Human Rights and much more, the EMLER mandate was renewed at the 56th session of the HRC. This renewal was a success for civil society as the renewal resolution called for the strengthening of the mandate administrative and substantive resources to adopt a victim-centered approach. This is important because the mandate's lack of resources has meant that certain expenses, such as the cost of psychological support for victims during the mechanism's country visits, had to be covered by CSOs coalition. Going forward, the UN will cover this cost, freeing up civil society's resources to support directly impacted people in other ways.
Human rights defenders were catalysts in these efforts to combat State structural racism at the United Nations. Moving forward, some helpful lessons learned from this includes:
Antiracism efforts at the UN is an ongoing story. It did not finish with Canada’s UPR, nor the creation of the EMLER mechanism. More States are up for their Periodic Review, where defenders can urge their country to be more active in implementing antiracist policies and legislation. The EMLER mechanism was renewed, and will carry out their mandate over the next three years (2027).
Video: HRC57: UNARC, CND and ISHR statement on systemic racism and the importance of EMLER (ISHR)
To follow ongoing developments, see ISHR’s latest updates web page and the UNARC calls for inputs web page and social media.
Written by:
Supported and reviewed by Ricardo Lamour, human rights defender in Canada.
