United Nations Orders U.S. to Pay Reparations to Black People-Truth! & Fiction!

United Nations Orders U.S. to Pay Reparations to Black People-Truth! & Fiction!

Summary of eRumor:

The United Nations (UN) has demanded that the United States pay reparations to black Americans.
The Truth:
It’s true that a report filed by a UN working group suggested that black Americans receive reparations, but the report is non-binding and the UN hasn’t ordered the U.S. to pay reparations.
The Working Group of Experts on People of African Decent, a panel of legal rights experts from around the world, drafted the report after going on a fact-finding mission to the United States in early 2016 to explore race relations and social issues.
In the report, the working group presents “the current legal, institutional and policy framework, and measures taken to prevent racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, Afrophobia and related intolerance faced by people of African escent in the United States, underscoring positive developments as well as gaps in implementation.”
The report concluded that there was “racial bias and disparities in the criminal justice system, mass incarcerations and the tough-on-crime policies that disproportionately impact African-Americans,” as well as a history of “racial terrorism” in the U.S.:

“In particular, the legacy of colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States remains a serious challenge, as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent. Contemporary police killings and the trauma that they create are reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynching.”

The working group urged Congress to adopt H.R. 40, the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for Afircan-Americans Act, to establish a commission to examine enslavement and racial discrimination in the U.S. from 1619 to the present:

The Working Group urges the United States to consider seriously applying analogous elements contained in the Caribbean Community’s Ten-Point Action Plan on Reparations, which includes a formal apology, health initiatives, educational opportunities, an African knowledge programme, psychological rehabilitation, technology transfer and financial support, and debt cancellation.

In another reference to reparation, the report noted that “the legacy of colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States remains a serious challenge, as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent.”
So, the panel of human rights experts recommended that Congress act to form a commission that could explore reparations for black Americans. But that report wasn’t acted on or reinforced by the UN in any way, so it’s not accurate to say that the UN has demanded that the U.S. pay reparations.