Woke activists turned their backs on the U.S. government for not giving in enough on human rights issues, according to reports.
The Associated Press reported that dozens of American activists who champion LGBTQ, indigenous, and reproductive rights conducted a silent protest before the independent Human Rights Committee as U.S. Ambassador Michele Taylor wrapped up a two-day hearing in the U.S.
Public sessions were held in Geneva this fall with six other countries, including Haiti, Iran, and Venezuela, to assess the nation’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, one of the few international human rights treaties that the U.S. has ratified.
The protest comes after Taylor said that the U.S. commitment to the treaty was “a moral imperative at the very heart of our democracy” and that her country “leads by example through our transparency, our openness and our humble approach to our own human rights challenges.”
“You have heard over the past two days about many of the concrete ways we are meeting our obligations under the convention, and you have also heard our pledge to do more,” Taylor added. “I recognize that the topics raised are often painful for all of us to discuss.”
Jamil Dakwar, director of the human rights program at the American Civil Liberties Union, condemned the lack of effort and said that the U.S. delegation “decided to stick to scripted, general, and often meaningless responses” to questions from the committee.
“At times it seemed that AI generated responses would have been more qualitative,” Dakwar said.
Andrea Guerrero, executive director of community group Alliance San Diego, also chimed in and said that America’s responses were “deeply disappointing” and consisted of a simple reiteration, defense, and justification of use-of-force standards by U.S. police.
“For that reason, we walked out of the U.S. consultations (with civil society) two days ago, and we protested today,” said Guerrero, whose organization started a campaign decrying law enforcement abuse in southwestern states.
It took about 140 activists, coming from places as diverse as Guam, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and beyond from various groups, nine years to come to Geneva for the first examination of U.S. compliance with the covenant.
