Michael Brown’s parents address U.N.: ‘we need the world to know’
The parents of Michael Brown, a Missouri teen whose death has sparked international protests and a call to end police brutality, testified before the U.N. committee Tuesday to let the world know “what’s going on in Ferguson.”
Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr. spoke to the United Nations Committee Against Torture. The committee works to end cruel or degrading treatment or punishment by government authorities.
“We need the world to know what’s going on in Ferguson and we need justice,” McSpadden told CNN in Geneva, Switzerland.
“We need answers and we need action. And we have to bring it to the U.N. so they can expose it to the rest of the world, what’s going on in small town Ferguson.”
Accounts differ as to what led to the August shooting of Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, by a white police officer.
While their testimony to the committee took place behind closed doors, the delegation that organized their trip said the couple would read from a statement submitted by the Brown family and organizations called HandsUpUnited, the Organization for Black Struggle, and Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment.
The document says Brown’s killing and force used by police officers during protests that followed the killing “represent violations of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.”
The statement calls for recommendations that would apply to the entire country, including that the attorney general and Department of Justice “must conduct a nationwide investigation of systematic police brutality and harassment in black and brown communities, and youth in particular. Methodology and findings of this investigation must be made publicly available.”
Click here to read the statement.
Black lives matter.
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