In the Spirit of Mandela, an unprecedented U.S. alliance of attorneys, academics, and organizers from the movements for Black lives, civil rights, Puerto Rican decolonization, immigrant rights, and Indigenous sovereignty/earth protection, will put the U.S. federal, state and local governments on trial for crimes against people of color. From October 22 - 25, the International Tribunal on U.S. Human Rights Abuses Against Black, Brown and Indigenous Peoples will convene both in person at a Manhattan historic landmark and virtually via livestream.

“This proceeding will establish overwhelming evidence that this country and its settler colonial predecessors have committed Genocide, as defined by the United Nations, against Black, Brown, and Indigenous People for over 400 years,” said Jihad Mabdulmumit, spokesperson for the coordinating committee of the In the Spirit of Mandela Coalition. “As we’ve seen most recently with the George Floyd street uprisings, only a strong grassroots movement from below can expose these crimes and do the work that can end them.”

Presiding will be an independent nine-member Panel of Jurists, some with international stature. The majority are women and Global South-rooted from India, Eritrea, Haiti, France, the U.S. and elsewhere. These jurists will oversee two days of testimonies from impacted victims, expert witnesses, and attorneys with firsthand knowledge of specific incidents raised in the charges/indictment. They will then deliver their verdict to the United Nations.

The Tribunal will consider charges of human and civil rights violations for:

• Racist police killings of Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples.
• Hyper/mass incarcerations of Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples.
• Political incarceration of Civil Rights Movement and national liberation-era revolutionaries and activists, as well as present-day activists.
• Environmental racism and its impact on Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples.
• Public health racism and its traumatic impacts on Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples.

Based on all the above, the overarching charge will be argued that the U.S. has committed Genocide against Black, Brown, and Indigenous People for a 400+-year period, in violation of 18 USC 1091 and the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention of Genocide. Legal aspects of the Tribunal will be led by Attorney Nkechi Taifa along with a powerful team of seasoned attorneys from all the above fields.