Hip Hop Congress

UN Special Rapporteur on Racism Makes Official Visit to Chicago to Address Human Rights Abuses

Willie “Jr” Fleming of the Coalition to Protect Public Housing and Edward “Buzz” Palmer of the People’s Program will host the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Xenophobia, Mr. Doudou Diene of Senegal, on May 23 and 24. He will meeting with local officials, including Mayor Daley and members of the Chicago City Council, and victims of racial discrimination. This visit is an important opportunity address the damage caused to families by racial discrimination in a human rights framework with local and state officials, and promote model programs for addressing social issues. Issues that are on our agenda to discuss with Mr. Diene are the lack of affordable housing, homelessness and poverty, health care disparities, police torture (Burge case), police brutality, juvenile justice, unlawful use of the death penalty, education, racial relations in Chicago.

Mr. Diene’s visit to Chicago is highly unprecedented. This visit has been arranged by the U.S. Department of State, and is a rare official visit by the United Nations to monitor, advise, and publicly report on human rights situations in the City of Chicago.

Carol Steele, President of the Coalition to Protect Public Housings “is recommending that there be a moratorium on any more demolition of public housings. Chicago has had a net loss of around 22,000 units of public housings for people in need. Public housing in Chicago consisted of 99% African American women and children. This city lost more housings then any other state in this union. The demolition of public housings has had a devastating effect on people in Chicago. Because of the closing of public housings Homelessness has become so rampant that averages age of a homeless person is seven year old. Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 25 Housings is a Human Right!!!”

Willie Fleming the co-coordinator of the visit and a member of the CPPH , Hip hop Congress and the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign says, “The intent of American legislative policies-Plan for Transformation and the HUD Moving to Work Demonstration Project”- was supposed to be to build better communities in urban areas. But in Chicago these policies have disenfranchised, discouraged and displaced an participant in this plan: the African American and Latino males. These men are father, brothers, uncles, and sons and it is illegal for many of them to live with there families in their communities. The Special Rapporteur should recommend that African America and Latino men should be allowed to sign on to leases, be hired for Section 3 jobs in their own communities, be provided economic and social services and educational opportunities.”