UNITED NATIONS - As an African American politician is set to assume for the first time in the country’s history the leadership of a major political party, a Geneva-based United Nations human rights investigator plans to come here next week to investigate whether racism plays a role in the presidential campaign, according to a statement released yesterday. The special rapporteur on “contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance,” Doudou Diène of Senegal, will arrive in America Monday for a two-week tour that will take him to Washington, New York, Chicago, Omaha, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, according to the statement.
Mr. Diene “is scheduled to hold meetings with representatives of the government, both at national and local levels, and with members of the legislative and judiciary branches,” the statement said. He will also hobnob with “non-governmental organizations, community members, representatives of political parties, academics, and other organizations and individuals working in the field of racism and discrimination.”
America has accepted Mr. Diene’s request for an investigation. “As an open society, we will not shy away from investigation of our practice,” a spokesman for the American mission to the United Nations, Benjamin Chang, said. “We need to lead by example” in the field of openness to outside investigation, he added.
Last March a special Human Rights Council panel demanded an end to “racial profiling” of Americans of Arab, Muslim, and South Asian descent and to ensure “immigrants and non-nationals are not mistreated,” Reuters reported. It also criticized the use of the death penalty, which it said may be racially-based.
Rapporteurs are independent experts, and they report to the Human Rights Council – a U.N. organ that since its creation two years ago has been heavily criticized in America for concentrating most of its work on Israel. Last week the council failed to convene a meeting to address the growing human devastation in Burma. America has declined to run for a seat on the 47-member council, but it is the largest contributor to its budget. The General Assembly is expected to hold an election for new membership on the Human Rights Council next week.