UN resolution condemns systemic racism without naming US

The UN’s top human rights body on Friday condemned discriminatory police brutality and demanded a report on "systemic racism", but rights groups accused Washington of wielding pressure to strip out any mention of the United States in the resolution.

The UN Human Rights Council’s 47 members approved by consensus a revised resolution, which was initially presented by African countries for an urgent council debate, called following the death of George Floyd in US police custody.

Floyd’s killing on May 25, after a white Minneapolis police officer -- since charged with murder -- pressed a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes, fuelled a national and global uproar over racism and police brutality.

An initially strongly-worded text proposed earlier this week had called for a high-level international investigation into police violence against people of African descent in the United States. But it was watered down in recent days, first to remove the call for an international probe, and finally to strip away any mention of the United States.

This sparked outrage from rights groups, which accused Washington and its allies of lobbying heavily to revise the text. Burkina Faso’s ambassador, who presented the resolution on behalf of the African group, acknowledged on Friday that "numerous concessions" had been made to "guarantee a consensus" on the text.

The approved resolution calls for UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet to "prepare a report on systemic racism, violations of international human rights law against Africans and people of African descent by law enforcement agencies".

It adds that the report should especially pay attention to "those incidents that resulted in the death of George Floyd and other Africans and of people of African descent, to contribute to accountability and redress for victims".

It also calls on the rights chief to "examine government responses to antiracism peaceful process peaceful protests, including the alleged use of excessive force against protesters, bystanders and journalists".

The United States, which had complained of being singled out in the initial text, withdrew from the council in 2018 and was not present on Friday. But a number of its allies took the floor to hail the changes made to the text, stressing that racism was a global issue.

Australia’s representative, for instance, celebrated the "acknowledgement that this problem does not belong to any one country. It is a problem around the world". Rights groups however slammed the revision.