On Wednesday, March 17, the International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence Against People of African Descent in the United States organized a side event at the UN Human Rights Council to share information about the Commission, its work and its findings to date. The Commission of Inquiry was organized by the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL), the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) following the June 2020 urgent debate on racism at the Human Rights Council. In a communication to the UN prior to the urgent debate hundreds of organizations and individuals had called on the UN to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate racist police violence in the United States, but the Human Rights Council declined the request. The NCBL, NLG and IADL decided to respond to the community’s call.
Moderator: Kerry McLean, Steering Committee member and international human rights lawyer
Speakers:
Sir Clare K. Roberts, KCN, QC, Commissioner, former former Attorney General of Antigua and Barbuda, former President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Professor Niloufer Bhagwat, Commissioner, Vice President of the Indian Association of Lawyers and of the Confederation of Lawyers for Asia and the Pacific region
Collette Flanagan. Founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality
The Commission thanks the National Lawyers Guild Foundation for its support.