On June 8, 2020, the family members of the victims of police killings in the United States and more than 600 civil society organizations from around the world opened a new chapter in the fight against racism. They wrote to members of the United Nations Human Rights Council to request them to urgently hold a special session on the US to respond to the grave human rights crisis of repression of nationwide protests following the police murder of George Floyd and other unlawful killings of unarmed Black people by police and armed white vigilantes.
In response, on June 12, Ambassador Dieudonné W. Désiré Sougouri of Burkina Faso, acting on behalf of the African Group on human rights in Geneva, wrote to the President of the Council, Ambassador Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger, to request an urgent debate on racially inspired human rights violations, systemic racism, police brutality and violence against peaceful protests.
The Council held that urgent debate on June 17 at its resumed 43rd regular session. Two days later, it adopted a consensus resolution A/HRC/RES/43/1 to promote and protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Africans and people of African descent against the excessive use of force and other human rights violations by law enforcement officers.
