Most of us are aware that the United States walked out of Durban 1 and did not
send a delegation to the Durban Review Conference. As such, the US is not a
signatory of the outcome documents the Durban Declaration and Program of Action
- DDPA As such, they can not be held to its conclusions, findings and
recommendations.

So we thought?. Interesting enough, in researching "Other U.N. Body
Reccomendations" for the List of Issues that civil society organizations want
the UN to take notice of and seek the US to address in its upcoming Periodic
Review of its adherence to the International Convention on Civil and Political
Rights - ICCPR, I came across ICERD''s  General Recommendations 34 Racial
Discrimination Against People of Afrikan Descent.ICERD is the International
Covenant for the  Elimination  of Racial Discrimination, of which the US has
signed and ratified. In General Recommendations 34, ICERD "incorporated" the
DDPA, the Durban outcome documents, I think.

Its specific language is:

Reaffirms its general recommendations Nos. 28 (2002) on the follow-up to the
World
Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related
Intolerance,
and 33 (2009) on follow-up to the Durban Review Conference, in which the
Committee
expressed its commitment to press for the implementation of the Durban
Declaration and
Programme of Action,
Notes also the condemnation of discrimination against people of African descent
as
expressed in the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action,
Observes that it has become evident from the examination of the reports of
States parties to
the Convention that people of African descent continue to experience racism and
racial
discrimination,
Having held a day-long thematic discussion on racial discrimination against
people of
African descent in the seventy-eighth session (February–March 2011) on the
occasion of
the International Year for People of African Descent, in which the Committee
heard and
exchanged ideas with States parties, United Nations organs and specialized
agencies,
special rapporteurs and their representatives, as well as non-governmental
organizations,
and decided to clarify some aspects of discrimination against such people and
further
support the struggle to overcome this discrimination worldwide,

Then it goes on to assert the many rights and recommendations.

As such, utilizing ICERD General Recommendation 34,  Afrikans in American can
push for "race-based" policy, which America has been dodging when targeted
favorably to Afrikan descendants.  This I believe was the utmost reason for not
participating fully in Durban 1 and 2. On of the reasons the Federal judge gave
for refusing to hear the lawsuits against corporations that benefited from
enslavement and terror of our ancestor's was that the American Constitution is
"color-blind". i.e, it can not see race as a primary reason for engaging policy.
Doing so would be discriminatory, i.e reverse racism. 

(This flies in the face of all the federal, state and local Black codes we have
been subjected to and are still subjected to. Anybody every heard of the "3/5ths
clause, ever heard of Plessy Vs Ferguson, ever heard of the Dred Scott
Decision?  But that was the ruling)

We have been saying for years policy targeted specifically toward Afrikan
descendants is the only way to correct the lingering effects of enslavement and
jim crow. Reparations is that policy and reparations is race-based, group-based.
ICERD GC34 may give us additional legal ammunition to force this issue. And
maybe force the federal judge to hear our suit?

What say some of the lawyers out there?

A Luta Continua - The Struggle Continues
Kamm Howard
Amos N Wilson Institute  GB2B
N'COBRA www.ncobra.org
"Power concedes nothing without a demand." Fredrick Douglass
Black Is Back Coalition  Blackisbackcoalition.org