UN rights chief meets US group protesting voter suppression

U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has met a delegation of U.S. faith-based human rights activists to discuss voter suppression efforts targeting African-Americans and low-income voters in the United States.

Zeid’s office said the delegation led by Rev. William Barber, national president of Repairers of the Breach, presented the rights chief with a letter outlining their concerns, which they said violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The rights office said Zeid welcomed the delegation Tuesday and noted his “grave concern” at “the longstanding discrimination against African-Americans and the marginalization of poor communities and communities of colour in the U.S.”

Zeid underscored the “ripple effect” of voter suppression on other rights, and the interdependence of civil and political rights, and economic and social rights, his office said.