UNITED NATIONS – A U.N. panel of experts slammed the U.S. Wednesday for allegedly failing to “unequivocally” reject racism and violence in places such as Charlottesville, Virginia, and urged the U.S. to ensure rights are not “misused” to promote hatred and racism.
The U.N.’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) announced the decision in a statement the morning after President Trump excoriated the mainstream media for saying Trump had refused to condemn groups like white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Trump noted he has done so on multiple occasions but that he had also condemned violent left-wing “Antifa” protesters responsible for violence in places like Boston. However, many in the media have objected that this was not enough.
Apparently, it was not enough for the U.N. either, with the committee issuing a decision under its “early warning and urgent action” procedure that noted alarm at both the demonstrations and also the Trump administration’s response – although it chose not to name Trump.
“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,” CERD Chairperson Anastasia Crickley said in a statement.
CERD requested that the U.S. takes measures “to address the root causes of the proliferation of such racist manifestations.” It also called on “high-level politicians and public officials to unequivocally and unconditionally reject and condemn racist hate speech and crimes in Charlottesville and throughout the country.”
“We call on the U.S. Government to investigate thoroughly the phenomenon of racial discrimination targeting, in particular, people of African descent, ethnic or ethno-religious minorities, and migrants,” Crickley said.
The experts also demanded the U.S. ensure that rights of free expression, association and assembly are not used to destroy the rights of others. In a curious addition, it also requested the U.S. “provide the necessary guarantees so that such rights are not misused to promote racist hate speech and racist crimes.”
In an interview with the New York Times, Crickley doubled down on the so-called “misuse” of rights, saying the U.S. needed to balance freedom of expression with concerns about so-called “hate speech.”
“We believe it is time that the United States considered these matters and considered seriously that balance, between freedom of expression and hate speech,” Crickley added. “Whether freedom to publicly and collectively express neo-Nazi views and to chant racist hate speech in effect constitutes freedom of expression — I think that’s a question that needs to be seriously addressed in the U.S.A.”
Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY.
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