Amnesty International, 25. juli 2001
Racism and the Administration of Justice
ACT 40/028/2001 - 124/01
The experiences of millions of people worldwide testify to a
simple fact -- racism undermines all human rights. Justice
systems all too often perpetuate racism by mirroring the
prejudices of their society. Ahead of the 2001 third UN World
Conference against Racism (WCAR), to be held in Durban, South
Africa, Amnesty International is urging governments to ensure
that the administration of justice in their particular countries
is free from prejudice, discrimination and racial bias.
The following briefing summarizes Amnesty International's
report, Racism and the Administration of Justice, and the
organization's concerns regarding the current disputes among
states within the context of the WCAR.
What is racism?
Racism is a blatant attack on the very notion of basic human
rights -- that human rights belong to all people, equally. It
infects, to varying degrees and in various forms, every country
in the world.
The prohibition of racial discrimination constitutes a
general principle of international law, included in all
fundamental human rights standards. The UN International
Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial
Discrimination (CERD), adopted in 1965 and ratified by 157
countries, outlines substantive rights and a series of steps for
the elimination of racial discrimination in all its forms.
Amnesty International's work against racial
discrimination is based on the definition set out in Article 1 of
the CERD:
"In this Convention the term 'racial discrimination'
shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference
based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin
which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the
recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human
rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic,
social, cultural or any other field of public life."
The world is familiar with some of the worst violations
of human rights based on racism, such as Apartheid, the Holocaust
of the Jews during World War II and the genocide against the
Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994. Yet less publicized abuses take place in
the daily operations of governments as well as in civil society.
How is Amnesty International involved in the work against racism?
Amnesty International opposes racism through its work to promote
the observance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
around the world. It also works worldwide on cases of grave
violations of the right to be free from racial discrimination.
Specifically, Amnesty International opposes racism by
working for the release of prisoners of conscience imprisoned by
reason of race, colour, national, ethnic or social origin; and
through its work on cases where racism is a factor in human
rights abuses including torture, ill-treatment, the death
penalty, "disappearances", unfair trials of political prisoners,
unlawful killings, excessive use of force, forcible exile, mass
expulsions and house destruction. Amnesty International
intervenes in cases where racial discrimination prevents redress
for victims and perpetuates impunity for perpetrators of human
rights violations, or hinders the right of those fleeing
persecution to seek asylum.
In this report, which is not intended to be a global or
comprehensive survey of racism, Amnesty International highlights
particular countries and cases of relevance to the question of
the administration of justice, focusing on law enforcement by
security forces, the operations of the judicial system, and
abuses in the context of asylum determination procedures.
Global racial discrimination
Racism often reflects deep-rooted historical patterns of
oppression against groups singled out because of their race,
colour, descent or ethnic or national origin. These patterns
exist within particular societies, or may transcend national
boundaries so that some groups, such as people of African, Roma
or Kurdish descent, face discrimination in the different
countries in which they reside.
Racial discrimination on the basis of colour persists in
many parts of the world and affects every aspect of life.
In the United States of America, extensive studies have
shown that racial discrimination is a major feature of the
administration of justice across the country. Reports have found,
for example, that blacks and whites are the victims of murder in
almost equal numbers, yet more than 80 per cent of prisoners
executed between 1977 and 2001 were convicted for the murder of a
white person; black men are admitted to prison at more than eight
times the rate of white men; and black men are incarcerated for
drug offences at a rate 13.4 times higher than white men. The
rate of imprisonment of black women is eight times higher than
for white women; for Hispanic women the rate is four times higher.
Racism in the administration of justice has been
documented in much of Europe. In general terms, racial minorities
are more likely than white people to be detained on suspicion of
offences such as drug dealing or theft. They also figure
disproportionately in cases of excessive use of force by police
and deaths in custody. Allegations of racist abuses by police are
rarely investigated effectively, and few authorities adequately
monitor complaints of racist treatment by police or others
administering justice.
In the United Kingdom, police have been found negligent
in their response to racist attack. Last year CERD's Committee
expressed serious concern that "racist attacks and harassment are
continuing and ethnic minorities are feeling increasingly
vulnerable". The Committee was also concerned about the finding
by a UK judicial inquiry in 1999 of institutional racism within
the Metropolitan police force. Progress has been slow in rooting
out racial prejudice within police forces and other public
institutions.
South Africa, which will host the WCAR, is still
struggling with the legacies of apartheid, a system of
legally-enforced racial discrimination which had been declared a
crime against humanity under international law. The South
African government, parliament and civil society organizations
have been involved in law reform, training and other wide-ranging
initiatives aimed at transforming public institutions and raising
public awareness after more than four decades of apartheid rule.
However, the struggle to transform institutions steeped in
discriminatory practices is likely to be a long one. This was
illustrated in November 2000 when state television broadcast a
secretly-made police video which showed white police officers
encouraging police dogs to attack three captive black men.
In Asia millions of people suffer discrimination because
of their descent or caste. Often the discrimination results in
extreme poverty and marginalization for such groups, leading to
further discrimination on the basis of economic status.
In India, despite the abolition by law of
"untouchability", Dalits continue to be discriminated against on
the basis of their descent. They are marginalized, particularly
in rural areas. Among the violations persistently reported are
torture (including rape), arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial
executions.
Dalits also often suffer violence in the community.
Abuses against Dalits frequently go unpunished, with local police
frequently refusing to record complaints by Dalits. Much evidence
points towards a connivance between powerful caste groups and the
police in violent attacks against Dalits.
An estimated 300 million indigenous peoples worldwide
face impoverishment and cultural marginalization as well as
widespread discrimination and other human rights abuses. Around
the world, states deliberately ignore abuses committed by their
agents and others against indigenous communities. Disputes with
landowners and national and multinational companies exploiting
natural resources on indigenous territories have led to many
serious human rights abuses, often carried out with the
complicity or acquiescence of the state.
Discrimination against Guatemala's indigenous peoples, an
estimated 70 per cent of the population, was a major factor
behind the wholesale rapes and massacres carried out during
Guatemala's long "dirty war" in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Even though a formal peace was declared in 1996, discrimination
continues to exclude Guatemala's indigenous peoples from most
aspects of national life. For example, they are not customarily
represented in their native languages in criminal trials where
they are defendants, nor in proceedings in which they attempt to
testify against alleged perpetrators of gross abuses.
In Australia, the administration of justice remains
heavily weighted against Aborigines. Aboriginal people are up to
22 times more likely than other Australians to be imprisoned.
Aborigines are vastly over-represented in both the juvenile and
criminal justice system and are more likely to die in custody
than non-Aboriginal people.
Racial discrimination against Roma occurs widely in
Europe because Roma are perceived as an "inferior" ethnic group,
a perception based in some countries on the lifestyle or relative
poverty of Romani communities. The discrimination is most
widespread in Central and Eastern European countries where Roma
form sizeable minorities. In many of these states, subtle forms
of discrimination have turned into open racial hatred and
violence.
In the Czech Republic, Roma are particularly vulnerable
to violent racist attacks, particularly by gangs of "skinheads".
Police often fail to intervene to protect Roma or to investigate
allegations of such violence seriously. There have also been
allegations of police collusion with "skinheads" and racist
organizations.
And all over the world, the vulnerability of women to
human rights abuses is heightened when they belong to ethnic or
racial minorities suffering discrimination. In situations ranging
from police interrogations to civil wars, the rape and sexual
abuse of women is deliberately used to systematically intimidate
and traumatize women, families and whole communities.
In Indonesia, during widespread violence against ethnic
Chinese in May 1998, many ethnic Chinese women were reportedly
gang raped, allegedly with the help of the military. In the
recent conflicts in former Yugoslavia and in African states such
as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mass rape of women from
the "enemy" population has been a favoured weapon of war.
Some of the most virulent forms of racism in justice
systems appear in societies torn apart by ethnic or nationalist
conflicts, with the conflict forming the background and sometimes
the official justification for discriminatory treatment by the
police and security forces against people from the "enemy" camp.
As a result, racism pollutes all aspects of society, including
the justice system.
In Europe and the Middle East, Kurds have been singled
out for violations of their human rights because of their
identity.
In Iraq waves of repression by the authorities have torn
Kurdish communities apart and devastated millions of lives. In
the 1980s, hundreds of thousands of Kurds "disappeared" after
arrest by Iraqi security forces, most never to be seen again.
Since mid-1997, thousands of Kurds and a number of other
non-Arabs living n the oil-rich Kirkuk region, have been expelled
to Kurdish provinces in the north (now controlled by Kurdish
organizations) because of their ethnic origin. Their empty
properties have been given by the authorities to pro-government
Arabs brought in from other regions of Iraq.
The estimated 13 million Kurds in Turkey face widespread,
although not open, discrimination on the basis of their ethnic
identity both in law and in the administration of justice. The
Turkish military and police have carried out extrajudicial
executions, "disappearances", mass arbitrary arrests and the
wholesale use of torture. Thousands of Kurds have also been
imprisoned for political offences, many after grossly unfair
trials. The majority of the victims have been Kurdish civilians.
Most of these gross human rights violations still await proper
investigations.
In Sudan, in the context of a racially divisive civil
war, government-allied militias mainly from the North have
engaged in a form of slavery mostly targeted at people of the
South. The victims are predominantly Dinka people from
Bahr-el-Ghazal, and the people from the Nuba mountains and
Ingessana hills. Thousands of people have been enslaved. Women
and girls have been raped, and some boys forcibly recruited as
child soldiers. Some s have allegedly had their names changed
into Arab names and forced to convert to Islam. The Sudanese
government has denied the existence of slavery and claims it has
no control over what it calls "traditional tribal abductions".
However in 1999 the government set up a Committee for the
Eradication of the Abduction of Women and Children which has
helped to reunite a few hundred people who were held in slavery
with their families.
In Myanmar, in the ongoing conflict with armed ethnic
groups, the army has targeted ethnic minority civilians for gross
human rights violations. Ethnic minorities have also been
forcibly relocated and forced to work as porters or on heavy
construction projects and they are often ill-treated, deprived of
food and tortured. Many thousands have fled abroad to escape
these violations.
In Israel, prejudice against Palestinian citizens of
Israel is widespread in the criminal justice system, both in the
courts and in law enforcement methods. During demonstrations and
riots in northern Israel last year, Israeli security forces used
firearms and killed 13 Palestinian citizens. It took weeks of
protests for a Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the killings
to be set up. A border policewoman was later quoted as saying,"we
handle Jewish riots differently. When such a demonstration takes
place, it is obvious from the start that we do not bring our guns
along."
In the Israeli Occupied Territories, different laws apply
to Jewish settlers and Palestinian residents. Palestinians are
governed by more than 3,000 military orders, allowing for trials
by military courts which are often unfair. Since 1967 thousands
of Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories have also been
demolished ostensibly because they were built without a permit,
but Israeli officials have discriminated against Palestinians
when granting permissions and enforcing planning prohibitions.
Through neglect, discrimination and repression, ethnic
Uighurs, Tibetans and members of other ethnic minorities in China
have seen their cultural, social, economic and religious rights
eroded and their political rights curbed. The government has
responded to ethnic unrest and opposition with harsh repression,
including arbitrary arrests, summary trials and in some cases
executions. Torture is endemic throughout China, but male Uighur
political prisoners have reportedly been subjected to forms of
sexual torture not reported elsewhere in China.
Around the world, asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants
are facing xenophobic environments, sometimes directly encouraged
by the authorities or political parties and almost always
reflected in the administration of justice.
In Europe, politicians in several countries have helped
to stir up xenophobia through racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric,
or indirectly through policies that seek to restrict immigration
and asylum application. In countries such as Austria, Belgium and
Switzerland, foreign nationals have died during deportation as a
result of the use of dangerous methods of restraint by police
such as gagging. Ethnic minorities have also been
disproportionately victim of police brutality in countries such
as France.
In Japan, migrant workers who have overstayed their visas
or asylum-seekers held in detention centres have been beaten and
humiliated.
In Saudi Arabia, a secret and arbitrary criminal justice
system confronts everyone who comes into contact with the law,
but foreign workers from developing countries have much less
chance of escaping gross abuses than Saudi Arabian nationals. Of
889 executions recorded by Amnesty International between 1990 and
2000, over half of the victims were migrant workers.
Some 5,000 Iraqis remain held in a desert camp in
northern Saudi Arabia since the end of the Gulf War with Iraq in
1991. From the outset, the Saudi Arabian authorities referred to
them as "guests", refusing to consider them as refugees. Most of
the original 33,000 men, women and children have been resettled
by the United Nations.
Today in South Africa, asylum-seekers and refugees from
other African countries are sometimes the targets of
racially-motivated or xenophobic violence from members of the
public and law enforcement officials.
Amnesty International's recommendations
The Amnesty International report calls on governments to adopt
national strategies and plans of action to combat all forms of
racism and to include specific measures relating to the
administration of justice, including:
- Becoming party to the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination without making
limiting reservations;
- Ensuring that members of state agencies reflect the diversity
of their societies, receive effective training and are
disciplined or prosecuted whenever they commit racist abuses;
- Providing protection against racist attacks by preventing and
responding to all forms of racist attacks, and bringing those
responsible to justice;
- Ensuring that asylum-seekers and detainees are informed of
their rights and receive effective legal and language assistance;
- Ensuring that the conduct of trials and the imposition of
sentences do not discriminate on grounds relating to racism.
Countries where the death penalty is still imposed should
investigate any disproportionate impact of such penalty on racial
groups and declare a moratorium on executions pending such
investigations;
- Initiating or supporting campaigns to mobilize public opinion
against racism.
Amnesty International's concerns regarding the WCAR
The last session of the Preparatory Committee of the WCAR will
take place in Geneva between 30 July and 10 August (the WCAR
itself is due to take place in Durban between 31 August and 7
September, with an NGO Forum scheduled between 28 and 31 August).
The preparations for the WCAR are currently marred
primarily by disputes over the issue of reparations for slavery
and colonialism and issues relating to Israel, Zionism and the
use of the term "Holocaust". Because of such disputes countries
may decide to downgrade the level of their participation in the
WCAR or not attend, and there is a fear that the conference may
fail to reach agreement on a common platform. If at all that
happens the world will have missed a unique opportunity to make a
difference in the fight against racism, letting down the victims
of discrimination in a spectacular way.
Amnesty International believes that all individuals who
have been victims of gross human rights violations must obtain
reparation and that the perpetrators must be brought to justice.
States cannot avoid responsibility for such violations because
they were committed by past governments. Amnesty International
also believes that recognizing historical wrongs is essential,
both as acknowledgement of past injustice and in order to avoid
repetition in the future. However, where individual victims and
perpetrators cannot be identified, the most effective and
enduring form of reparation is to eliminate contemporary
manifestations of discrimination, including those that may be a
legacy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialism.
Amnesty International hopes that an agreement can be
reached by the WCAR on inter-state initiatives aimed at dealing
with the legacy of the past, including proposals relating to
development aid, cancelling debts and reviewing terms of trade.
If not, Amnesty International would urge states to agree a
mechanism for addressing these issues outside the framework of
the Conference, so as to ensure that the WCAR gives proper
attention to developing forward-looking plans for eradicating
contemporary forms of racism.
Amnesty International holds states to be accountable for
human rights violations under international human rights
standards, and does not attempt to define or take position on
systems of government or ideologies such as Zionism. In this
respect, Amnesty International believes that it would be more
productive if the WCAR were to address any discriminatory state
practice ? such as discrimination in Israel and the Occupied
Territories against Palestinians ? by recalling the international
obligations of states rather than addressing any particular
ideology.
There is also a dispute over the use of the term
"Holocaust". Amnesty International notes that each genocide has
had specific aspects and survivors refer to their experience with
terms that are particularly meaningful to them and that may then
enter into general usage. "Holocaust", for instance, is widely
understood to mean the racist genocide of the Jews during World
War II. The controversy over this issue is insensitive to the
feelings of survivors. All genocides are equally reprehensible.
The WCAR must ensure that the crime of genocide is not
trivialized and that all victims are recognized.
Amnesty International appeals to all governments to focus
constructively on the challenge of building a world free from all
forms of racial discrimination, and ensure that the WCAR
contributes effectively to this goal.
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