In Conclusion

Our trip to Geneva is drawing to a close. I have spent the last two days listening to the official U.S. government report of compliance with the Treaty to End Racial Discrimination and the U.N. Committee's questions. I am struck, first and foremost, by the U.S. acknowledgment of the many areas of racial disparities - in criminal and juvenile justice, in health-related issues, in housing, in education. Yet, the U.S. government, contrary to international law, focuses on the issue of intent, rather than effect. What this means is that despite the acknowledged disparities, the government asserts it cannot do much as there is no evidence of intentional discrimination.

In contrast, international law and practice believes that it is a governmental responsibility to look at data and information that show effect, a pattern of racial disparity. In the view of the U.N., government has a profound policy and moral responsibility to address the social and economic exclusion of people of color, even where individual intent cannot be identified. For those of us who are interested in "bringing human rights home", the 2008 reauthorization of the Civil Rights Act will be an opportunity to bring U.S. law and practice into international compliance by changing the law to make effect, and not intent, the test of racial inequities.

With respect to the particular issue that CCA youth and staff were here to contribute to - the school to prison pipeline - we were very disappointed in the U.S. government's answer to the Committee's question on this issue. The Government answered that the federal government is not involved in school discipline policy and practices; instead school discipline was defined as the sole purview of local boards of education. The Government also stated that there is no data that document the school to prison pipeline. In fact, federal law mandates that any school district which receives federal funds (virtually every school district in the U.S.) must expel for a minimum of one year any student found in possession of a weapon [Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), 20 U.S.C. 7140, 1994, now incorporated into the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB)]. The term "weapon" has been interpreted broadly to include not just firearms, but a student’s hands and feet, book bags, and athletic shoes. Federal law requires that such incidents be referred to local law enforcement authorities – a direct initiation of the school-to-prison pipeline. The racially disparate consequences of these federal requirement are undeniable, and annually documented by the U.S. Government’s own data from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights (2000, Fall 1998 Elementary and Secondary School Civil Rights Compliance Report: National and State projections).

However, to end on a more positive note, the U.S. Government representative stated forthrightly that "Disparity in the criminal justice system raises a red flag and is a call to action for all of Americans. Ameliorating this statistical disparity is the responsibility of government and the whole of society." Let us hope that this statement becomes translated into action.