During the hearings, the committee members called out what they described as systemic racism deeply entrenched in the U.S., while discussing several U.S. political issues that generally aren't discussed at global forums.
For example, the committee decried "the failure of the Senate" to pass the Democrat-backed John Lewis Voting Rights Act, arguing U.S. election laws "disenfranchise" minorities.
Committee members then criticized gerrymandering and "artificial and unnecessary voter identification requirements" implemented by some Republican-led states to protect against voter fraud. They called for the U.S. delegation to provide updates on a bill that would make Washington, D.C. a state — saying such legislation would "enable residents ... to participate fully in their country's democracy" — as well as updates on efforts to establish a committee to explore the idea of giving reparations to African-American descendants of slaves.
One member also asked the U.S. delegation for information on the government's commitment to establish a "permanent federal body" to coordinate the implementation of the convention and other human rights obligations.
Such recommendations will likely not land well with Americans concerned about international bodies potentially violating U.S. national sovereignty — an issue on which Just the News
has previously
reported in the context of a global pandemic treaty.
Unlike the Trump administration, which withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council, the Biden administration has engaged the global body's human rights system,
arguing that by doing so, "positive change is within reach."
Experts have warned, however, that such engagement must be used to hold the world's most egregious human rights violators accountable for their actions, not the U.S.
Biden administration officials, who have welcomed U.N. probes into America's human rights record, appear before a global committee in Geneva reviewing the country's commitment to stopping racial discrimination.
justthenews.com