U.N. Rights Expert Says U.S. Struggling to Meet Its 'Ideals'
Racial tension and inequality across society are preventing the United States from meeting its "ideals", a U.N. expert said Thursday following his first-ever visit to the country.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on peaceful assembly and association, Maina Kiai, also voiced serious concern on overly aggressive policing which he said has at times stifled the right to legitimate protest.
He also levelled tough criticism at a foreign workers visa program, claiming it gave far too much power to employers over their workers and comparing it to a system in the Middle East widely viewed as oppressive.
"Racism and the exclusion, persecution and marginalization that come with it, affect the enabling environment for the exercise of association and assembly rights," Kiai said in a statement after a 17-day U.S. tour which included stops in Washington, New York, Baltimore and several southern cities.
Echoing previous U.N. criticism, he blasted America's "so-called 'War on Drugs'", which he argued disproportionately affects blacks and other minorities, including harsh sentencing guidelines that often see minor drug offenses result in long prison terms.
"There is justifiable and palpable anger in the black community over these injustices. It needs to be expressed," Kiai said in the statement.
Rights to free expression in the U.S. had been curbed by "unnecessarily aggressive and militarized policing at some peaceful assemblies," Kiai added.
On migrant workers, the U.N. expert said the H2B visa program which lets foreigners take short-term seasonal work was not unlike the Kafala system in the Arab world, a form of "bonded labor," roundly criticized by rights groups.
"The situation of migrant workers throughout the United States is characterized by the precariousness and exploitation of their employment situation, retaliation for drawing attention to adverse working conditions and a fear of taking action to seek improvement of the violations," the U.N. expert said.
Kiai insisted that now was the moment when a "robust" defense of free assembly in the U.S. was most needed.
"People have good reason to be angry and frustrated at the moment," he said in the statement.
Source: Agence France Presse
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