In the News June 14

Demands for Reparations Increase in the United States

International Jurists Find U.S. Guilty of Genocide Against Black, Brown and Indigenous Peoples

A distinguished panel of nine international jurists has released its detailed and documented final verdict finding the United States guilty of genocide against Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples. The jurists examined five counts, including police killings, racist mass incarceration, treatment of political prisoners, and environmental and health care racism.

Testimony from thirty people, along with extensive documentation was presented at last October’s historic human-rights Tribunal, organized by the Spirit of Mandela and held in New York City. The current guilty verdict builds on previous political precedents, such as that of Malcolm X in 1964, and the 1951 “We Charge Genocide” petition presented to the United Nations by Paul Robeson and William Patterson.

The jurists relied on the definition codified in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, ratified by 152 nations, including the U.S. Besides forbidding mass murders, the Convention also outlaws “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group” and “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

The verdict speaks to “a total, relentless and pervasive genocide in the Americas” against Indigenous peoples since 1492. It refers to the “executions and extrajudicial killings” of Black people, and the overall “institutionalized genocide,” including from the racist criminal justice system. The genocide of U.S. colonization of Puerto Rico, including political imprisonment of those fighting for independence is addressed. Many examples of U.S. human rights violations from environmental and health care racism are also provided. The verdict called for government accountability, demanding “urgent and immediate remediation.”

The Spirit of Mandela alliance is calling on all concerned to use the verdict to educate and organize:

– read, study and understand it;

– forward it and share it with those with whom you work, your organizations, and list-serves;

– post it on your websites and refer others to it; and

– join us in holding house meetings, inviting speakers into classrooms, churches, and mosques, and organizing zooms with friends and co-workers.

It is also carrying forward the work against genocide and for rights by organizing for a Peoples’ Senate, which is an initiative to put decision-making in the hands of the people through coordinated, strategic action. The Peoples’ Senate will be a national cohesive network of people reflective of poor and working-class communities across the United States, its colonies and territories – joining together to protect, champion, and uphold the human rights of Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples, and thus ensure the human rights of all people.

To read the full verdict click here.

For more information, visit the website of spiritofmandela.org or tribunal2021.com.

Contact: spiritofmandelamedia@gmail.com or go to Facebook.

Twitter: @inthespiritt

For videos of the 2021 Tribunal and related issues click here or here.

TML Daily, posted June 14, 2022.