'lHE SHADOWS OF THE WAR

7ERROR:

I'ERSISIENTPOLICE BRUTALllYAND ABUSE
UNllED STATES

A report prepared for the United Nations Human Rights Committee
on the occasion of its review of the

The

States of

s Second and Third Periodic Report to the
Rights Committee

May 2006

Executive Sununary
in response to the USA's Second and
This report was prepared by U.S. non-governmental
to the Human Rights Committee (the
Third Periodic
with the
its
and
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the "ICCPR" or
police brutality and abuse in communities of color across the U.S.
despite this Committee's
previous expression of concern about this issue, continues to take place, in violation of Articles 2, 3, 6, 7, 9,
IO, 17, 20, 25, and 26 of the Covenant.
the
violations
This report focuses exclusively on issues relating to policing in order to
of human rights guaranteed by the Covenant which take place outside of com1s and prisons, on the streets,
cars, and in police precincts across the U.S. Additionally, we
how the
and
police abuse and misconduct in the U.S. interferes with the enjoyment of other
guaranteed
by the Covenant. We refer the Committee to reports submitted on "Domestic Criminal Justice Issues and the
ICCPR" and the administration of the death penalty for more information on criminal
issues and
violations arising in courts and prisons.
The organizations participating in the preparation of this report are deeply concerned about the torture and
inhuman, and degrading treatment perpetrated and condoned by the U.S. government overseas in the
as
context of the "war on terror" and U.S. occupations oflraq Afghanistan, and Guantanamo
in
weU as the lack of effective remedies for such abuses.
and
we wish to specifically call the Committee's attention to
Covenant which continue to take place on U.S. soil, in the shadows of the U.S.
extraterritorial
state, and federal law enforcement
at the hands of
We urge the Committee to focus
attention on abuses of human rights on U.S. soil during its review of the U.S.
targets, and rationales
We believe that there are significant similarities - in
between the U.S. government's human rights abuses overseas and at home. The U.S. government's recent
from whole cloth, but rather are rooted in
overseas did not
and
of human rights abuses in the U.S.
The overall climate of the U.S. government's "war on terror" has led to considerable
of civil
liberties in the us.1 It has fostered torture and abuse of :individuals detained
local and federal law
in the wake of the events of September l
as well as ongoing
of Arab and
enforcement
Muslim populations in the U.S.3 lt has also created a generalized climate of impunity for law enforcement
officers, and contributed to the erosion of what few accountability mechanisms exist for civilian control over
As a result, police brutality and abuse
unabated and undleterred across the
law enforcement
country.
The U.S. government refers this Committee the two reports it has submitted to the UN Committee
for information concerning its compliance with Article 7 of the 1CCPR5. In :its report to the
Torture
but
CAT, the U.S. government concedes that complaints of police violence and abuse continue to be
states
In a country of some 280 million people with a prison population of over 2 million
perhaps unavoidable, albeit unfortunate, that there are cases of abuse.6

In The Shadows

\.Var On Terror

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