The UN anti-racism watchdog on Wednesday sounded a warning against the United States amid worries about racist demonstrations promoting white supremacy and inciting racial discrimination and hatred.
The white supremacists’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which led to violent clashes and the death of a 32-year-old woman, pushed demonstrators across the U.S. to gather in condemnation of racism and hatred.
“We are alarmed by the racist demonstrations, with overtly racist slogans, chants and salutes by white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and the Ku Klux Klan, promoting white supremacy and inciting racial discrimination and hatred,’’ said Anastasia Crickley, Chairwoman of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The Geneva-based committee monitors the UN anti-racism treaty that Washington joined in 1994.
Beyond expressing concern, the UN also launched what is known as an early warning procedure.
The early warning mechanism obliges the government in question to take action in order to prevent problems from escalating into conflicts.
The committee told the U.S. administration “to address the root causes of the proliferation of such racist manifestations.’’
It also called on Washington to guarantee that free speech rights are not abused to promote racist crimes.
The UN body used this mechanism only six times in the past decade prior to Wednesday, most recently in Burundi, Iraq and Ivory Coast.
On Aug. 12, one woman was killed and 19 were injured in Charlottesville when a participant of a white supremacist rally rammed counter-protesters with a car.
Numerous other people were injured in clashed between rightists and counter-demonstrators
. (dpa/NAN)