[JURIST] The United States engages in widespread and systematic racial discrimination in violation of its obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) [text], human rights groups said Wednesday. US Human Rights Network Executive Director Ajamu Baraka told reporters that the US has not adequately implemented ICERD since it first adopted the treaty in 1994, pointing to the treatment of immigrant workers and the slow response to Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive] as examples of discrimination against minority groups. The US Human Rights Network, Human Rights Watch [advocacy websites] and other human rights groups said they will submit a report [text] on racial discrimination in the US to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) [official website], which is set to examine US compliance [CERD materials] with ICERD at a session in Geneva this week. AFP has more.

Earlier this month, an investigation [text; press release] by Human Rights Watch revealed further disparities in the treatment of minorities in the US, including a finding that African-American youth arrested for murder consistently receive harsher sentences than white youths arrested for the same offense.