Read the full press release: High Commissioner for Human Rights: impunity for violence by police and other law enforcement officials is a reflection of all societies and systemic racism within all institutions must be addressed
Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet is the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
GENEVA (19 March 2021) – Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner for Human Rights, said impunity for crimes that may have been committed by agents of the State was profoundly damaging to the core values and social cohesion of every nation. No police officer or any other agent of any State should ever be above the law. This was, after all, the basic premise of the rule of law. Stating that it was imperative to end police violence, Ms. Bachelet said the world would not succeed in this endeavour until all realised that impunity for violence by police and other law enforcement officials against people of African descent did not exist in a vacuum; that law enforcement and judicial authorities were a reflection of all societies; and that unless the systemic racism within all institutions was addressed, the police alone could not be fixed.
