The Dream Defenders continued their fight against Stand Your Ground, meeting with the United Nations Human Rights Committee to discuss how the policy encourages racism and ignores the right to life.
Yesterday, multiple members of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UN HRC) found Florida's Stand Your Ground law and similar laws around the country to be "incompatible" with the "inherent right to life" – Article Six of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR). ICCPR is an international human rights treaty that the U.S. ratified in 1992. Long considered customary international law, the treaty includes protections such as the right to life, freedom from discrimination, freedom of speech, and many other civil and political rights.
This week, Dream Defenders' Legal & Policy Director Ahmad Abuznaid joined hundreds of United States human rights groups and advocates to present to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UN HRC), as well as the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, statements on how implementation of Stand Your Ground laws is rife with racial bias, and how policies like it endanger the right to life and communities of color across the country. This has been especially apparent with the Jordan Davis and Trayvon Martin cases in Florida, among others.
Visit www.dreamdefenders.org/DDATTheUN for resources on the Dream Defenders' trip to the Geneva, including daily blog posts; Ahmad Abuznaid's statement to the Deputy High Commissioner; and the Dream Defenders' shadow report submitted to the United Nations on Stand Your Ground.
