A/HRC/49/46/Add.1 of mandatory minimum sentences and zero-tolerance policies in the laws of some States, as well as the “war on drugs” of the 1970s, have had the effect of disproportionally criminalizing large swaths of minority populations. One third of the prison population in the United States is African American and one third is Hispanic and Latinx, although the two minorities only make up some 13 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively, of the population of the country. This has created a vicious circle of exclusion and barriers to later employment and inclusion in society for those with criminal antecedents, including in accessing adequate housing, social programmes and credit. Ultimately millions – overwhelmingly minorities – are being effectively excluded from political representation and the right to vote because of felony or even misdemeanour convictions and associated penalties. 42. The Special Rapporteur is of the view that minorities find themselves disproportionally at the receiving end of marginalization and criminalization that crushes them into a generational cycle of poverty, within a criminal justice system that is structurally set up to advantage and forgive those who are wealthier and to penalize those who are poorer, particularly minorities of colour. As pointed out by the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, “the criminal justice system is effectively a system for keeping the poor in poverty while generating revenue to fund not only the justice system but diverse other programmes … So-called ‘fines and fees’ are piled up so that low level infractions become immensely burdensome, a process that affects only the poorest members of society who pay the vast majority of such penalties”.19 43. It should be noted that the poorest members of society caught up in this vicious cycle are mainly from minority communities, such as African Americans and Hispanic and Latinx individuals. Every day in the United States, almost half a million people are in jail without being convicted of a crime or incarcerated because they cannot afford bail. The cash bail system disproportionately impacts minorities, notably the Black and Hispanic and Latinx populations, and the proportion of those affected has more than doubled over the past 15 years.20 44. Police killings of and violence and brutality towards African Americans are of extremely grave concern because of more recent high-profile incidents. However, what is overlooked is the systemic nature of what the mediatized incidents reveal. Available statistics indicate that African American men are almost three times as likely and Hispanic and Latinx men are almost twice as likely to be killed by police than white men. Independent and effective oversight of law enforcement is crucial to end such practices, in addition to other measures that need to be systematically put into place to de-escalate confrontational approaches towards certain minorities, and thus to end prevalent racial profiling practices. The Special Rapporteur looks forward to further elaboration on this subject in the report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance on his visit to the United States in 2022. VII. Hate crimes and hate speech 45. There are hate crime laws at the federal level and in most States prohibiting violence and threats of motivated by race, colour, religion, national origin and other protected categories. The Special Rapporteur was informed of numerous recent initiatives by federal authorities to further tackle hate crimes and hate speech, such as the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act of 2021 and the Jabara-Heyer No Hate Act of 2021, in what has been described as a new range of tools to combat hate crimes and incidents. He was also informed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has now elevated hate crimes to its highest level national threat 19 20 Statement on visit to the United States by Professor Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Washington, D.C., 15 December 2017, para. 33 (see https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2017/12/statement-visit-usa-professor-philip-alston-unitednations-special-rapporteur). Wendy Sawyer, “How race impacts who is detained pretrial”, Prison Policy Initiative, 9 October 2019, see https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2019/10/09/pretrial_race/. 11