GENEVA, June 5. /TASS/. Protests in the United States are a response to systemic racism triggering state-sponsored racial violence, as follows from a statement by United Nations human rights experts released on Friday.
"The uprising nationally is a protest against systemic racism that produces state-sponsored racial violence, and licenses impunity for this violence," the statement reads. "The protests the world is witnessing, are a rejection of the fundamental racial inequality and discrimination that characterize life in the United States for black people, and other people of color."
The experts expressed criticism of US President Donald Trump’s actions in response to the protests. Thus, the experts pointed to his "threating more state violence using language directly associated with racial segregationists from the nation’s past." "We are deeply concerned that the nation is on the brink of a militarized response that reenacts the injustices that have driven people to the streets to protest," the document emphasizes.
The statement was signed by 66 United Nations experts, including Ahmed Reid, Chair of the Working Group of experts on people of African descent, Tendayi Achiume, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Agn·s Callamard, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and David Kaye, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of expression.
Widespread unrest has engulfed many US states over the death of an African-American Minneapolis man named George Floyd, who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck and choked him to death during his arrest. On May 26, all officers involved in the deadly arrest were fired. On May 29, the policeman in question, Derek Chauvin, was arrested on third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges. However, on June 3, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison upped the charge against Chauvin to second-degree murder. The three other officers involved in the fatal incident were arrested as well and are now facing charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
To counter the riots, local law enforcement is often supported by the National Guard. So far, 40 cities, including New York, have enacted a curfew.