The Parents of Trayvon Martin & JordanDavis speak at the United Nations/Switzerland- the Root
As protests continue in Ferguson, Mo., calling for justice in the slaying of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, activists from the United States, most notably Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, and Ron Davis, the father of Jordan Davis, were in Geneva as part of a delegation calling for a United Nations committee to review U.S. compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
“I … wanted the committee to know that [Trayvon] was killed by a person [who] is of non-African-American descent and that the person was 28 years old so that they can understand that this was a 17-year-old child, by U.S. standards, against a 28-year-old adult male, and that Trayvon was considered a threat only because of the color of his skin,” Fulton said of her son, who was killed in February 2012 by former neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman. “Although ‘Stand your ground’ may seem like it’s a neutral law on the surface … it really isn’t, the way it is applied in the USA.”
The convention to eliminate racial discrimination is a treaty, approved by the U.S. in 1994, which details what countries should do and what standards should be upheld to prevent, eliminate and redress racism and discrimination. The U.N.’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination oversees implementation of the convention.
More: Sybrina Fulton and Ron Davis Discuss Policing and Race at UN Review in Switzerland - the Root