NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th June, 2020) A demonstration is being held at the United Nations headquarters in New York with the protesters calling for a UN resolution condemning the actions of the United States with regard to racial minorities, a Sputnik correspondent reports.
About 100 people have gathered in front of the entrance to the UN headquarters. They are recalling the recent condemnation of racial violence in the US by independent UN human rights experts and are calling for a UN resolution condemning systematic racism in the US. The protesters are also calling for cutting police funding.
On Friday, UN human rights experts condemned the killing of George Floyd in a statement calling for "systemic reform and justice." The experts pointed to racial violence in the United States, saying that African-Americans "have good reason to fear for their lives."
In a separate statement on nationwide protests, experts of the UN Human Rights Council expressed their deep concern over the US government's threat of militarized response to the George Floyd protests. The experts said that the protests the world is seeing now are a rejection of fundamental racial discrimination and the response to them should include concrete actions, matching people's demands, such as investing in healthcare, education, housing, and other social structures.
The current wave of mass protests in the US and other countries was sparked by the death of George Floyd, an African-American man, in police custody in the US state of Minnesota. Floyd died on May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis white police officer, pinned him to the ground with his knee for over eight minutes. A total of four police officers have been fired in connection with the incident. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree and third-degree murder and manslaughter while the other three officers have been charged with aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.
On Saturday, multiple peaceful demonstrations in connection with Floyd's death are being held across New York City.
