LIBERATION By: Maritonie Cano Mr. Chair Thank you for giving me the floor of this forum in raising the issue of the protection of rights of minorities. This forum provides an opportunity for raising voice of the voiceless and those people who are victimized under the garb of security and countering extremism. My organization highly values the contribution of this forum in providing opportunity to highlight incidents of discrimination and violence against minority communities either on grounds of their religion, ethnicity, race or colour, These incidents of violence should be investigated and perpetrators should be held accountable," besides addressing institutional racist practices in certain countries. It is unfortunate that in many parts of the world minorities are being treated like slaves even in a number of developed countries. The recent incidents of massive surveillance, harassment, torture and extrajudicial killing of minorities particularly black community in the USA has demolished the artificial narrative of equality, tolerance and justice in the society. The issues of killing of teenagers by Police in Missouri and a number of similar other incidents have raised serious questions with regard to the culture of impunity and lack of accountability. Mr. chair, During the presentation of the report to the. Human Rights Committee, the Committee expressed concern over racial disparities at different stages in the criminal justice system, sentencing disparities and the overrepresentation of individuals belonging to racial and ethnic minorities in prisons and jails. The Committee also raised concern about the practice of racial profiling and surveillance by law enforcement officials targeting certain ethnic minorities, Even the Committee has observed disparities in the imposition of death penalty that affects disproportionately African Americans. We urge the international community and UN human rights machinery including Special Procedures to take notice these blatant human rights violations that are indeed based on discriminatory laws.