The United States’ Racial Justice Problem Is Also an International Human Rights Law Problem

Article originally published by Just Security

Today, I issued a statement joined by over 40 United Nations Independent Human Rights Expert mechanisms, on the national uprising in the United States against police brutality and systemic racial injustice. Many of us also joined national calls for urgent action to ensure accountability for the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and many others. One reason it is important to look beyond the borders of the United States in the face of demands for seismic change on the racial justice front is that international human rights norms require and offer the foundation for a better system than the one currently in place in this country.

A now widely articulated criticism or concern is that the legal and policy frameworks that are supposed to provide accountability for and prevent racially discriminatory police misconduct are themselves part of the problem. As Fourth Amendment expert Devon Carbado has highlighted, U.S. constitutional doctrine, for example, “expressly authorizes or facilitates the very social practice it ought to prevent: racial profiling.” Law will not end structural racial injustice — but it can and should play an important part in the process. At the very least, law should not be part of the problem, and in the United States it clearly is. Part of the thought and action to chart solutions to this problem should include greater attention and commitment to the United States’ existing racial justice and equality legal obligations under international human rights law . . .