GENEVA / HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL RACISM

The Human Rights Council in Geneva heard powerful testimony from the brother of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of US police officers sparked worldwide protest. Philonise Floyd said, “black lives do not matter in the United States of America.” UNTV CH

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:14
• Production Date: 17 June 2020
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: AMINA J. MOHAMMED; MICHELLE BACHELET JERIA
• Corporate Name: OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS - OHCHR
• Subject Topical: POLICE; RACISM
• Geographic Subject: UNITED STATES
• MAMS Id: 2548576
• Parent Id: 2548576
• Alternate Title: unifeed200617f

Description

STORY: GENEVA / HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL RACISM
TRT: 02:14
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / FRENCH

DATELINE: 17 JUNE 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE

Shotlist

FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Wide shot, exterior, flag alley, Palais des Nations

17 JUNE 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

2. Wide shot, Assembly Hall, UN Geneva, temporary home of the UN Human Rights Council
3. Med shot, podium speakers and delegates standing to observe a minute’s silence
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Philonise Floyd, Police Brutality Victim’s Brother:
“You watched my brother die. That could have been me. I am my brother’s keeper. You in the United Nations are your brothers and sisters’ keepers in America and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother George Floyd. I am asking you to help him. I am asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us, black people in America.”
5. Med shot, delegate wearing facemask
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Time is of the essence. Patience has run out. Black lives matter. Indigenous lives matter. The lives of people of colour matter. All human beings are born equal in dignity and rights and that is what this Council, like my Office, stands for.”
7. Wide shot, podium speakers and big screen broadcasting Bachelet delivering her address
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Philonise Floyd, Police Brutality Victim’s Brother:
“Even after my brother was unconscious, stopped moving and stopped breathing, the officer kept his knee on my brother’s neck for another four minutes as many witnesses kept begging the officer to take his knee off of my brother’s neck and save his life. The officers showed no mercy, no humanity and tortured my brother to death in the middle of the street in Minneapolis with a crowd of witnesses watching and begging them to stop, showing us black people the same lesson yet again: black lives do not matter in the United States of America.”
9. Wide shot, TV camera operator in foreground, podium to rear with UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed shown on big screen
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Today, people are saying, loudly and movingly, ‘Enough.’ The United Nations has a duty to respond to the anguish that has been felt by so many for so long. This cause is at the heart of our Organization’s identity. Equal rights are enshrined in our founding Charter. Just as we fought apartheid years ago, so must we fight the hatred, oppression and humiliation today.”
10. Wide shot, Assembly Hall

Storyline

The Human Rights Council in Geneva today (17 Jun) heard powerful testimony from the brother of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of US police officers sparked worldwide protest. Philonise Floyd said, “black lives do not matter in the United States of America.”

In a pre-recorded appeal to the Council to set up an international probe to investigate killings of Black people in America and violence against demonstrators, Philonise Floyd urged the United Nations to act.

Floyd delivered his message in the Council’s first Urgent Debate on racism, alleged police brutality and violence against protesters sickened by the killing of American George Floyd in police custody, called by the African Group of nations.

“You watched my brother die. That could have been me,” he said in an impassioned recording. “I am my brother’s keeper. You in the United Nations are your brothers and sisters’ keepers in America, and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother George Floyd. I am asking you to help him. I am asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us. Black people in America.”

Addressing the Council at the start of the debate, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet struck a similarly urgent tone. “Time is of the essence. Patience has run out,” she said. “Black lives matter. Indigenous lives matter. The lives of people of colour matter. All human beings are born equal in dignity and rights and that is what this Council, like my Office, stands for.”

Reminding the Council’s delegates of the circumstances surrounding his 46-year-old brother’s death on 25 May in Minneapolis, Floyd noted that even after he was “unconscious, stopped moving and stopped breathing, the officer kept his knee on my brother’s neck for another four minutes as many witnesses kept begging the officer to take his knee off of my brother’s neck and save his life. The officers showed no mercy, no humanity and tortured my brother to death in the middle of the street in Minneapolis with a crowd of witnesses watching and begging them to stop.”

Speaking for the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said, “today, people are saying, loudly and movingly, ‘Enough.’ The United Nations has a duty to respond to the anguish that has been felt by so many for so long. This cause is at the heart of our Organization’s identity. Equal rights are enshrined in our founding Charter. Just as we fought apartheid years ago, so must we fight the hatred, oppression and humiliation today.”

The urgent debate, only the fifth to take place since the Council began its work in 2006, was initiated by the Council’s African Group, after a call from more than 600 rights groups to investigate alleged police violence after Floyd’s death.