During the visit, the Mechanism visited Washington DC, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, and New York City saying in a press release, that it had been pleased to learn about various promising initiatives that authorities have developed to combat racial discrimination affecting people of African descent.

Urging accountability and support

Members of the UN Human Rights Council-appointed delegation said they “felt an urgency, and a moral responsibility, to echo the harrowing pain of victims” and their resounding calls for accountability and support

“We saw some promising initiatives centering the voices of victims and survivors, as well as law enforcement initiatives that could be replicated throughout the United States.

‘Reparation initiatives’ welcome

“We welcome the reparatory measures taken so far, including executive orders signed in 2021 and 2022, as well as individual reparation initiatives by way of civilian settlement for damages,” said Tracie Keesee, an expert member of the Mechanism.

“But we strongly believe that more robust action, including on part of federal authorities, is needed to result in strong accountability measures for past and future violations.”

“This includes boosting oversight mechanisms with compelling power”, providing sufficient resources and “robust and holistic” reparation, together with support and rehabilitation to victims, including “access to justice and health, including mental health services.”

The legacy of structural racism

Slavery has left a deep and long-lasting entrenched legacy on the country, which can be perceived through generational trauma, the independent experts noted.

Racial discrimination permeates all contacts with law enforcement, from the first contact – often during early school years – by means of racial profiling, arrest, detention, sentencing and disenfranchisement in some US states, the said.

“In each of those aspects, available data points to a clear disproportional impact upon people of African descent.”

Transition to human rights-centred response

The experts said it should be an “imperative priority” to address and unpack the issue of poverty as it impacts people of African descent, moving from a criminal justice response to a human rights-centred response to poverty, homelessness, substance abuse, and mental illness.

“While acknowledging that most of these efforts would need to take place at the state and local levels, we call upon Federal Government and Congress to continue demonstrating leadership, notably by allocating federal funding to state-level policy initiatives, adopting national standards on the use of force, and undertaking federal criminal investigations into cases of excessive use of force by law enforcement,” said Juan Méndez, another of the Mechanism’s experts.

The Mechanism has shared its preliminary findings with the White House and will draft a full report to be published in the coming months and presented to the Human Rights Council at its next full session.

 Independent human rights experts are mandated to monitor and report on specific thematic issues or country situations. They are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work.

Elizabeth Tan, UNHCR’s Director of International Protection said their first request was that countries allow civilians fleeing Sudan on “a non-discriminatory manner to access their territory”.

She said this applied to Sudanese nationals, foreign nationals, and refugees who are being hosted in Sudan, “stateless persons, as well as those who do not have a passport or any other form of identification.”

Since the military showdown began between the national army and main rival militia known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began on 15 April, UNHCR and humanitarian partners have been reporting a shocking array of human rights violations, including indiscriminate attacks against civilians and sexual violence.

Widespread criminality and looting of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and humanitarian premises, have forced many Sudanese to flee and seek safety outside Sudan.    

“There are Sudanese who are outside of Sudan and who now require protection,” said Ms. Tan.

“They should not be sent back to Sudan if they have ongoing asylum claims. We are requesting that negative decisions be put on hold.”

Large numbers of civilians have been forced to flee the fighting, including people who were already internally displaced because of previous conflict in Sudan, and refugees from other countries.

“There were 1.1 million refugees hosted in Sudan, and those individuals require protection”, she stressed.

UNHCR remains particularly concerned about the situation of the newly displaced in Darfur.

“We have heard reports about IDP (internally displaced people) camps being burned to the ground, so we know that people are being displaced. The IDPs in Darfur are being displaced again,” said Ms. Tan.

“Our ability to provide assistance in Darfur is severely constrained.” She said in the east of the country, UNHCR was able to provide some assistance “because that part of the country is still relatively stable – In Darfur it’s a different situation and so the humanitarian situation is likely to deteriorate.” 

7 children an hour killed or injured

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also released disturbing new numbers of children killed and injured in Sudan, particularly the conflict hotspots of Khartoum and the Darfurs.

“The reports we have received are 190 children killed and 1,700 injured,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, referring to the time since the violent military clashes began. “That means that every single hour you have seven boys or girls have been killed or injured.”

Mr. Elder added that “these are only children getting to health facilities. I think this is underlining the enormity of how violent this is and how much it’s impacting children. This is before we look at the eight million plus who needed humanitarian assistance”, who are dealing with severely damaged health and water systems.

No safe haven

UNICEF stressed that particularly places where children must be safe such as homes, schools and hospitals have consistently come under attack.

While condemning the attacks on humanitarian workers and humanitarian facilities as well as the looting of vehicles and supplies, UNICEF stressed that such attacks undermine the capacity to reach children with critical aid.

Quoting the Sudanese Ministry of Health, Dr Margaret Harris, Spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that “4,926 people were wounded and 551 people have been killed” but that real numbers are likely much higher.

Bleeding out

According to WHO’s Dr Harris, 25 per cent of people failed to survive because they could not get simple treatment to stem bleeding.

In the third week of brutal fighting in Sudan, healthcare services are rapidly falling apart in the nation’s capital, Khartoum. Very few hospitals are fully operating and over 60 per cent are no longer operating.  

On Thursday, UNCHR and 134 partners, announced funding requirements of $445 million for the regional interagency refugee’s initial emergency response plan in five countries to assist an estimated 860,000 Sudanese, refugees of other nationalists and refugees’ returnees leaving the country.

“We are alarmed about widespread mental health issues and accounts of escalating suicides among women and girls,” they said in a joint statement. “This extreme situation of institutionalized gender-based discrimination in Afghanistan is unparalleled anywhere in the world.”

‘Extreme’ discrimination

Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, de facto authorities have issued a cascade of restrictive orders that amounts to “extreme institutionalized gender-based discrimination” and a systematic chipping away of the rights of women and girls, they warned.

The ongoing “appalling” human rights violations have masked other underlying manifestations of gender-based discrimination that preceded the Taliban’s rule and are now “deeply engrained in society and even normalized”, they added.

Currently, females are prohibited from being in school above sixth grade, including universities, can only be provided care by women doctors, and are barred from working at the UN and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

‘Life under house arrest’

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, and the Chair of the working group on discrimination against women and girls, Dorothy Estrada-Tanck, shared their preliminary observations, including meetings with Taliban leaders and grave accounts from the women and girls they met in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif, in Balkh province, between 17 April and 4 May.

“Numerous women shared their feelings of fear and extreme anxiety, describing their situation as a life under house arrest,” they reported.

“We are also particularly concerned by the fact that women who peacefully protest against these oppressive measures encounter threats, harassment, arbitrary detentions and torture,” they said.

Extreme misogyny

For two years, the de facto authorities have dismantled the legal and institutional framework and have been “ruling through the most extreme forms of misogyny”, destroying the relative progress towards gender equality achieved in the past two decades, they said.

In meetings with the Taliban, the experts said de facto authorities had told them that women were working in the health, education, and business sectors, and that they were ensuring that women can work according to Sharia, separated from men.

The de facto authorities reiterated their message that they were working on the reopening of schools, without providing a clear timeline, and indicated that the international community should not interfere in the country’s internal affairs, the experts added.

However, they noted that the Taliban impose certain interpretations of religion “that appear not to be shared by the vast majority of Afghans”.

‘Alive, but not living’

The experts said that one of the women they spoke with told them, “we are alive, but not living”.

The consequences of the restrictive measures have led to detention for alleged “moral crimes” under extreme “modesty rules”, they said. New laws have also decimated the system of protection and support for those fleeing domestic violence, leaving women and girls with absolutely no recourse.

The impact is alarming, the experts said, noting that new Taliban-imposed measures have reportedly contributed to a surge in the rates of child and forced marriage, as well as the proliferation of gender-based violence perpetrated with impunity.

“These acts do not occur in isolation,” they cautioned. “If we are to eliminate discrimination and break cycles of violence, gender justice requires a holistic understanding as to why such violations are committed.”

‘Gender apartheid’

The world “cannot turn a blind eye,” they warned.

They recommended that the international community develop further normative standards and tools to address “the broader phenomenon of gender apartheid” as an institutionalized system of discrimination, segregation, humiliation, and exclusion of women and girls.

At the same time, the UN should take a human rights-based approach which requires a deep understanding and analysis of its principles, they said.

Technical and financial partners should considerably increase their support to activists and grassroots organizations present in Afghanistan and to the unwavering efforts of a “still vibrant civil society” to avoid the complete breakdown of civic space which could have irreversible consequences, they recommended.

They urged the de facto authorities to honour commitments towards the protection and promotion of all women’s and girls’ rights and comply with obligations under instruments to which Afghanistan is a State party, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Special Rapporteurs

The experts expect to present to the Human Rights Council in June a joint report thoroughly analysing the situation of women and girls’ rights in Afghanistan, followed by an interactive dialogue with Afghan women.

Special Rapporteurs and other rights experts are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, are mandated to monitor and report on specific thematic issues or country situations, are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work.