U.S. welcomes U.N. investigator’s racism probe (Reuters)
The United Nations has said Doudou Diene will meet federal and peculiar officials, lawmakers and judicial authorities during his visit, which runs from Monday to June 6. The focus of the visit is racism, which has become an issue in this year's U.S. presidential election campaign.
"We don't entertain the idea (the attack) is needed but we welcome the visit," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters after a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
"I think it would be important for the Human Rights Council to spend its time on real problems and the problems of violations of human rights in countries that are notorious for their violations of human rights," Khalilzad said.
Among the notorious violators of mortal rights are North Korea, Iran and Belarus, he said.
Diene routinely visits countries to assess racism. Race has developed into a central publish in the United States ahead of November's presidential election because Sen. Barack Obama, the frontrunner in the Democratic nomination battle, could become the country's in the beginning threatening president.
His campaign has increased turnout among black voters but has also turned at leisure some white voters in a country with a history of slavery and racial segregation.
Diene's three-week visit, officially sanctioned alongside the U.S. government, purpose cover eight cities — Washington, New York, Chicago, Omaha, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Diene, a Senegalese lawyer who has served in the unfettered post since 2002, on report his findings to the U.N. Human Rights Council next year.
However, the United Nations has almost no clout when it comes to U.S. domestic affairs and is widely perceived by many as interfering. The United States is not among the 47 member states of the Geneva-based forum, but has eyewitness status.
In a report last year Diene said Islamophobia had grown worldwide since the September 11 2001 attacks on the United States, carried out by al-Qaeda militants.
A U.N. panel which examined the U.S. record on racial discrimination last March urged the United States to halt so-called racial profiling of Americans of Arab, Muslim and South Asian descent and to ensure immigrants and non-nationals are not mistreated. In racial profiling, a person's racial or ethnic background is infatuated into consideration when assessing the likelihood he or she will commit a crime.
The report also said America should impose a moratorium on the death penalty and stop sentencing green offenders to life in prison until it can root out racial bias from its fair play system.
(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau, editing by Cynthia Osterman)

