The parents of slain teenager Michael Brown are scheduled to address the United Nations Committee Against Torture this week about racial profiling and police violence in the United States.
Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr., whose unarmed 18-year-old son was shot dead by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer, have flown to Geneva and are slated to speak to the committee Wednesday and Thursday, according to
The Washington Post.
Brown's parents are expected to learn in the next few days whether a grand jury has indicted white police officer Darren Wilson, who shot the black youth in August. The Post says that most people expect Wilson to be cleared of any wrongdoing.
McSpadden and Brown Sr., meanwhile, have set up a website, called
FergusontoGeneva, to decry the police investigation of their son's death while turning the shooting into an international case.
The website says, "Police violence in America is a human rights issue. Ferguson is an example. Ferguson to Geneva is part of the solution."
On the site, the Brown family writes, "In the absence of justice from the local, state, and federal government, the family of Michael Brown and Ferguson protesters are ready to take our case before the global community.
"We have submitted a brief to the United Nations, and we will formally present it on November 12th and 13th in Geneva, Switzerland. The goal is not only to achieve justice in Ferguson, but to unite governments around the world against the human rights violations that result from racial profiling and police violence.
"This effort was inspired by and is part of a larger U.S. delegation heading to Geneva to hold the U.S. government accountable."
The committee will also be discussing the use of drugs during lethal injections in death penalty sentences, which are opposed by the United Nations. The UN had criticized the
botched execution in Oklahoma earlier this year, the Post reported.
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