A/HRC/11/36/Add.3 page 6 trace, the landmark decision by the Supreme Court on Brown v Board of Education in 1954, striking down racial segregation in schools, certainly had a fundamental impact in unleashing the changes that took place in subsequent years. The movement culminated in the adoption of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a milestone document that set the institutional framework for the protection of human rights in contemporary United States of America.1 B. Demographic, ethnic and religious composition 8. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2006 the United States had a population of around 299 million, composed as follows: 73.9 percent white, 12.4 percent black or African American, 4.4 percent Asian, 0.8 percent American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1 percent Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 6.3 percent of other races and 2 percent of people with two or more races. The U.S. Census Bureau correctly does not define Hispanic or Latinos as a race, as individuals of South and Central American origin may be of any race. In 2006 Hispanics or Latinos composed 14.8 percent of the population.2 9. In 2007, the foreign-born population in the United States (those not U.S. citizens or U.S. nationals at birth) amounted to approximately 38 million people, or 12.6 percent of the total population.3 42.5 percent of those foreign born residents were naturalized citizens. Out of the foreign born population, 47.5 percent are Hispanics, 23.4 percent are Asians, 20.3 percent are non-Hispanic whites and 7.8 percent are blacks. C. International human rights instruments 10. The United States is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),4 the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and other international human rights instruments. With respect to both the ICCPR and the ICERD, the United States has adopted a number of formal reservations, understandings and declarations. In the case of ICERD, with respect to Articles 4 and 7, and in the case of ICCPR, with respect to Article 20, the United States has taken treaty reservations to these provisions, explaining that their scope is at odds with the extensive protections contained in the U.S. Constitution and U.S. laws in the areas of individual freedom of speech, expression and association. 1 Other relevant legislation adopted in this period also included the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 2 U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey. 3 U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement, 2003. For additional data, see the Government’s responses to Questions Put By the Rapporteur in Connection with the Consideration of the Combined Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Periodic Reports of the United States of America (CERD/C/USA/6) (available at www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/ cerd/docs/AdvanceVersions/wrusa72.pdf); pp.1-6. 4 On ICCPR, the United States has a reservation on, inter alia, Article 20 on limitations on freedom of expression.