IACHR Report on Police Violence Against Afro-descendants in the United States

In March 2019, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published a report on “Police Violence Against Afro-descendants in the United States”.

The report examines the persistent situation of structural discrimination against people of African descent in the USA with a particular focus on racial disparities in law enforcement practices and the criminal justice system. Based on information gathered from the state, civil society organizations, and victims of excessive use of force by police, as well as a state visit and public information, the Commission looked at a variety of longstanding and interconnected issues, among others: The problem of over-policing and ethnic profiling of African-Americans and other ethnic minorities, resulting in disproportionate numbers of police stops, searches and subjection to surveillance measures; the militarisation of police in terms of equipment, training, and protocols; the difficulties in holding police criminally responsible for their actions due to, among other factors, prosecutors biased in favour of the police and reluctant to press charges, resulting in few convictions and low sentences; patterns of discriminatory and excessive use of force, in particular against unarmed civilians, which is exacerbated by patterns of impunity for killings by police; and the excessive policing and high number of arrests in African-American protests.

PHRP hopes that the USA acts upon the recommendations issued by IACHR, in particular by aligning the currently inadequate domestic legal framework on the use of force with international standards and by ensuring adequate investigation of, and effective accountability for, cases of excessive use of force and killings by police. We further welcome the recommendations to create an independent Ombudsman office to receive and act upon complaints about discriminatory treatment, to reverse policies that have a racially disparate impact and to combat the stigmatisation and criminalisation of protestors.