After Trayvon Martin case, UN tells US to examine laws thatdiscriminate against African Americans

George Zimmerman

"We call upon the US Government to examine its laws that could have discriminatory impact on African Americans, and to ensure that such laws are in full compliance with the country’s international legal obligations and relevant standards,” said human rights expert Verene Shepherd, who currently heads the UN Working Group of Experts of People of African Descent.

Much of the world sees the Trayvon Martin case as representing America's still-present racial problems and are particularly concerned about Florida's Stand Your Ground Law. It has created debate in the United States and also in other countries after George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin in what he said was self-defense and justifiable use of force. Trayvon Martin was an African American teen, age 17 years old, when he was shot by Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman.

While the US Department of Justice, the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida and the Federal Bureau of Investigation currently evaluate evidence generated during the federal investigation, the world has watched the trial as well, and many people have expressed their disappointment in the verdict, freeing Zimmerman from a murder charge in a Florida courtroom.

“The Trayvon Martin case has highlighted the importance of the need to review those existing laws and policies that can have a discriminatory effect on the basis of race, as African Americans become more vulnerable to such discrimination,” Ms. Shepherd said, recalling that the US has been party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights since 1992, the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination since 1994, and many other international human rights law treaties.

“States are required to take effective measures to review governmental, national and local policies, and to amend, rescind or nullify any laws and regulations which have the effect of creating or perpetuating racial discrimination wherever it exists,” said the Special Rapporteur on racism, Mutuma Ruteere.

According to the 2011 US Department of Justice Hate Crime Statistics, 71.9 per cent of the total number of victims of hate crimes reported to the nation’s law enforcement agencies were victims of an offender’s anti-black bias. IA survey done in 2012 by a non-governmental organization Malcolm X Grassroots Movement found that at least 136 unarmed African Americans were killed by police, security guards and self-appointed vigilantes annually.