MAPB at the United Nations

Over the past eight years, MAPB has participated in numerous forums at the United Nations and related international initiatives.

 

  • 2022: (October) Ms. Flanagan testifies in Geneva before the United Nations Human Rights Council, along with Jurema Werneck (Amnesty International Brazil) and Justice Yvonne Mokgoro, chairperson of Expert Mechanism.
  • 2015: MAPB’s senior adviser and noted human rights lawyer, Nicole Lee, testifies at a hearing organized by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on “Confronting the Silence: Perspectives and Dialogue on Structural Racism against People of African Descent Worldwide.”1
  • 2015: MAPB’s founder, Collette Flanagan testifies that same year at the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights hearing on “U.S. Use of Force by Police Against People of African Descent.” Co-founder, Sara Mokuria, also testifies.2
  • 2020: MAPB works in coalition with the ACLU and other NGOs, in support of the passage, in June, of a major resolution of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), promoting and protecting the human rights “of Africans and of people of African descent against excessive use of force and other human rights violations by law enforcement officers” (Resolution 43/1, Human Rights Council, 19 June 2020)3
  • 2021: (March-April) MAPB participates in the International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence Against People of African Descent in the U.S. – a distinguished panel of human rights lawyers – to identify cases and to bring directly-impacted families into the process.4
  • 2021: (May) MAPB organizes 144 families directly impacted by fatal police violence to sign a letter, along with ACLU, and 270 NGOs from around the world, to Michelle Bachelet, then United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, calling for an independent commission, under the auspices of the U.N. Human Rights Council, to investigate inter alia police killings of Black people in the U.S.5 The present International Independent Expert Mechanism (IIEM) resulted, in part, from this initiative.
  • 2021: (June) the OHCHR releases its report, pursuant to HRC Res. 43/1, describing “an alarming picture of system-wide, disproportionate and discriminatory impacts on people of African descent in their encounters with law enforcement.” Ms. Flanagan, provides video testimony to the UNHRC during the preparation of this report.6
  • 2021: (November) Ms. Flanagan testifies at the at United Nations Forum on Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law.7
  • 2022: (April) MAPB submits input to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Annual Report.8
  • 2023: (February) MAPB is invited to submit an application to the UN Voluntary Fund for the Victims of Torture (UNVFVT) for a grant for capacity-building and planning a comprehensive program for victims of police brutality and families of victims of extrajudicial killings by police in the U.S. The UNVFVT recently recognized police violence as a form of torture eligible for support through the Fund.
  • 2023: (April) MAPB is invited by the OHCHR to submit information for the 2023 Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
  • 2023: (April) Created in 2021, the Expert Mechanism (EMLER), chaired by Justice Mokgoro, announces a fact-finding mission to the U.S., April 24 to May 3, 2023. Collette and MAPB Co-Founder John Fullinwider serve on the planning committee for the U.N. visit; Collette serves as a spokesperson in numerous press reports. The first hearing is held April 26 in Atlanta GA. Asked to produce a session for this hearing, MAPB organizes in-person testimony by 15 directly impacted families, including MAPB’s Legacy Fellows (see below). We provide travel, lodging, and other support for 15 family members to participate – from 10 different cities, in 5 different states, including 8 witnesses from the Atlanta area. Their testimony is the centerpiece of the hearing. As the UN experts noted in their remarks at the end of their visit, “the Mechanism feels an urgency, and a moral responsibility, to echo the harrowing pain of victims and their resounding calls for accountability and support, which it heard throughout its journey.”9

Notes and Sources:

  1. See: https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1k/k1klzhtslm. Ms. Lee’s testimony begins at 01:21:28.
  2. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_ZLnaWeXCk. Ms. Flanagan’s testimony begins at 10:57. Sara’s testimony begins at 18:38.
  3. See: https://undocs.org/A/HRC/RES/43/1
  4. See: https://inquirycommission.org/; Ms. Flanagan’s testimony upon the release of this report appears here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A23jlPufK4U – at 03:18 minutes in.
  5. For text of the letter, see: https://www.aclu.org/letter/coalition-letter-calling-united-nations-inquiry-us-police-violence.
  6. For press report, see: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/jun/28/un-calls-end-impunity-police-violence-against-black-people-george-floyd. For summary, see: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Racism/Pages/Call-Implementation-HRC-Resolution-43-1.aspx. For full text of the report, see: https://undocs.org/A/HRC/47/53. For Ms. Flanagan’s testimony to the UNHRC, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPptFBAlg5g&t=137s
  7. For video of Ms. Flanagan’s testimony, see: https://media.un.org/en/asset/k14/k148kgma79?kalturaStartTime=3262; begins at about 54:22.
  8. Link to submission: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/racism/wgeapd/cfi-res-47-21/submissions/2022-09-14/Mothers-Against-Police-Brutality-Submission-NGO-PAD-hrc51-A-HRC-51-53-I.pdf
  9. For an example of Collette commenting on the UN visit, see: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/24/un-human-rights-experts-racial-justice-policing. At the end of their visit, the UN experts presented their initial views at a press conference:

MAPB Fellowship Legacy Program: Building a National Family Network

  • (2013-2019) MAPB’s initial work with families that have suffered from police violence was in Dallas, Texas. Later, we brought families to Dallas from around the country to testify at our annual program, the Clinton R. Allen Speak Out for Justice. We established an online Facebook group of 400 mothers and families.
  • (2021) From these origins, MAPB is building a national network among directly impacted families. The foundation of this effort is MAPB Fellowship Legacy Program. The first ten Fellows, in ten different U.S. cities, were chosen in this summer; their 3-year fellowships began in October 2021. Through leadership development, community building, and narrative change, the MAPB Fellowship supports these women as leaders in their home communities and as catalysts and participants in the broader movement to change policing in America.
    But the program is more than leadership skills development. The women in the program have suffered genuine trauma, as the surviving Mothers of children lost to deadly police violence – extrajudicial killings that are comparable to the worst forms of torture under openly dictatorial regimes, under wartime conditions, and under lawless societies where criminal syndicates operate with official or unofficial sanction. For this reason, the Fellows receive social, economic, education, and psychological supports to “turn their grief into fuel for social justice,” as MAPB’s founder, Collette Flanagan, has described her own journey from loss to liberating action.
  • (2022, October-November) MAPB sponsored Voices of Struggle & Hope, a series of 10 online dialogues with MAPB Fellows in conversation with faith leaders, activists, journalists, and policy experts. Part of our leadership training is for the Fellows to articulate their stories and ideas in a variety of settings. Each of the dialogues featured one of the Fellows, two allies/supporters of their choice from their home cities, others with experience on the relevant issues, and a host from MAPB. Each of the 1-hour dialogues was livestreamed and videotaped.
  • (2023) MAPB sponsored We Remember, a national awareness campaign lifting up the relentless, ongoing devastation of police violence through the voices and experiences of mothers who have lost their children to it. The 6-month campaign lifted up the stories of 30 families who lost their children to police brutality, including the MAPB Fellows who led the effort in their home cities. Starting in Columbus OH (January) and continuing in San Antonio TX (February); Atlanta and Columbus GA (March – April); Houston TX, San Jose CA, Oakland CA (April – June); and closing in West Palm Beach FL (June). The billboards stay up for 1-3 months. In each city, families organize vigils, rallies, and other events at the billboard site. For one such observance in Georgia, see: https://www.wrbl.com/video/say-their-names-billboard-observant-day/8524597/. MAPB documented the We Remember billboard events and background stories for use on various social media platforms and in an upcoming 1-hour video documentary of the campaign.
  • (2023) In April, as noted above, the MAPB Fellows and 5 other directly impacted families testified before the United Nations Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement at its fact finding hearing in Atlanta GA. The U.N. panel was clearly moved by the families’ stories, and the hearing was livestreamed worldwide.
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