The brother of the late George Floyd, a black man whose death under the knee of a white officer roused world protests against racial injustice, urged the United Nations on Wednesday to investigate U.S. police brutality and racial discrimination.
âThe way you saw my brother tortured and murdered on camera is the way black people are treated by police in America,â Philonise Floyd told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva by video.
He urged creation of an independent commission to investigate American police killings of black people and violence used against peaceful protesters.
âYou watched my brother die. That could have been me. I am my brotherâs keeper. You in the United Nations are your brothers and sistersâ keepers in America, and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother George Floyd,â he said.
The urgent debate, convened at the request of African countries seeking a U.N. inquiry into abuses, was to continue on Thursday.
âThe Human Rights Council must be the ultimate defender of the weak and do so particularly for the descendants and the victims of the transatlantic slave trade,â South Africaâs ambassador Nozipho Joyce Mxakato-Diseko told the talks.
Activists and diplomats said that U.S. and Australian officials had lobbied African countries to tone down their draft resolution. The latest draft, seen by Reuters, does not name the United States or set up a U.N. commission of inquiry.
The latest text proposes that the office of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet âestablish the facts and circumstances relating to systemic racismâ and alleged use of excessive force, and report back in a year.
Bachelet, in her speech, called for investigating and prosecuting excessive use of force by police and for âswift and decisive reformsâ.
âBlack lives matter. Indigenous lives matter. The lives of people of colour matter. All human beings are born equal in dignity and rights,â she said.
The United States quit the Council two years ago and does not attend debates.
Andrew Bremberg, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, issued a statement saying that his country was ânot above scrutinyâ as it grappled with racial discrimination but was implementing police reforms after Floydâs killing.
âAs the worldâs leading advocate for human rights we call upon all governments to demonstrate the same level of transparency and accountability that the U.S. and our democratic partners practice,â Bremberg said.
China, Cuba, Russia and Venezuela criticised the U.S. record. âRussia knows what racism leads to when it is raised to the status of political doctrine, we remember the Second World War and attempts to rewrite that history,â said Russian ambassador Gennady Gatilov.
Chinaâs ambassador Chen Xu urged the United States to âguarantee effectively the legal rights of ethnic minoritiesâ and âstop using human rights as a political tool and practising double standards internationally.â
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by William Maclean, Giles Elgood and Howard Goller)