Children’s Rights ICERD Submission for the U.S. Periodic Report
Every day, unjust child welfare laws and policies subject Black families to surveillance, policing, and discrimination that causes devastating harm, breaking apart families and violating their human rights. At every stage of the child welfare system, Black children and families face racism and unequal outcomes compared to their white counterparts.
This failure to dismantle systems and laws that discriminate against Black children and families represents an urgent human rights violation.
Together, with over 30 advocacy organizations, Children’s Rights has called on the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to hold the United States accountable for its failure to adequately address or remedy racial discrimination within the child welfare system.
In August 2022, Children’s Rights will be in Geneva for the UN review of the United States’ performance on efforts to eliminate racial discrimination. With over half of Black children experiencing surveillance by the child welfare system, it is clear the U.S. is failing to uphold its obligations under the Convention.
WE NEED ANSWERS
1
What concrete steps is the U.S. taking to recognize, review, and remedy racial disparities and ongoing discrimination against Black families in the child welfare system?
2
What concrete steps will the U.S. take to review federal laws that perpetuate racism in the child welfare system and harm Black children and families?
Is the Administration committed to drafting, recommending, and sponsoring legislation that rescinds harmful laws and policy and enhances protections for Black children?
3
How will the U.S. work to prevent the poverty-based removals of Black children?
What action will it take to address the underlying factors that lead families to child welfare involvement for poverty reasons
4
What concrete steps will the U.S. take to ensure that key factors, including the right to family integrity and the known trauma of family separation, are considered by child welfare agents and judicial decision makers in determinations regarding child removal?
Alejandra Londono Gomez
Policy Analyst & Former Child Welfare Worker
Angela Olivia Burton
Attorney
Bobbi Taylor
Lived Experience Engagement Consultant
Brooklyn Defender Services
Center for Family Representation
Center for the Study of Social Policy
Community Legal Services of Philadelphia
Culture Creations, Inc.
Disability and Civil Rights Clinic, Brooklyn Law School
Dorothy E. Roberts
George A. Weiss, University Professor of Africana Studies, Law & Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
East Bay Family Defenders
Families Together in New York State
Family Defense Consulting
Heather Imperiale
Mother, Activist
Honorable Bryanne Hamill
JMacForFamilies
Lawyers for Children
Louisiana Elite Advocacy Force
Mining For Gold, LLC
MJCF Coalition
National Association of Counsel for Children
National Center for Youth Law
Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem
NYU School of Law Family Defense Clinic
Parent Legislative Action Network
Partners for Our Children, Seattle, WA
Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts, The University of Baltimore School of Law
The Bronx Defenders
The National Juvenile Justice Network
upEND Movement
Village Arms LLC
Whitney Bunts
Policy Analyst
RECENT NEWS
National Advocates Call on UN to Review Racial Injustice in U.S. Child Welfare System
July 14, 2022
RECENT NEWS
PRESS RELEASE
National Advocates Call on UN to Review Racial Injustice in U.S. Child Welfare System
July 14, 2022
Racial Injustice in Child Welfare is an Urgent Human Rights Issue
We’re calling on the UN Committee to hold the U.S. government accountable.
Racial Injustice in the Child Welfare System is an Urgent Human Rights Issue.
We’re calling on the UN Committee to hold the U.S. government accountable.
