The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Statements | UNITED NATIONS
Statement from Philonise Floyd to the United Nations Human Rights Council
June 16, 2020
Urgent Debate on Systemic Racism and Police Brutality in the United States
I thank you for holding this urgent meeting and for the opportunity to speak to you today.
My name is Philonise Floyd and I am the brother of George Floyd. On May 25, 2020, My brother was tortured and murdered by four police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States.
My brother was unarmed and was accused of passing a counterfeit $20.00 bill.
The entire incident showing my brother’s murder was captured on camera.
My family and I have had to watch the last moments of his life when he was tortured to death including the eight minutes and forty-six seconds one officer kept his knee on my brother’s neck. My brother begged the officers for his life, cried out for our mama who was already dead, and said over and over again, “I can’t breathe.”
Even after my brother was unconscious, stopped moving, and stopped breathing, the officer kept his knee on my brother’s neck for another four minutes, as many witnesses begged the officer to take his knee off of my brother’s neck and save his life.
The officers showed no mercy, no humanity, and tortured my brother to death in the middle of the street in Minneapolis with a crowd of witnesses watching and begging them to stop- showing us Black people the same lesson yet again- Black Lives do not matter in the United States of America.
None of the police officers were fired for murdering my brother until masses of people in the United States and around the world protested the injustice.
When people dared to raise their voice and protest for my brother they were tear-gassed, run over with police vehicles, several people lost eyes and suffered brain damage from rubber bullets, and peaceful protestors were shot and killed by police. Journalists were beaten and blinded when they tried to show the world the brutality happening at the protests. When people raise their voices to protest the treatment of Black people in America they are silenced- they are shot and killed.
My brother, George Floyd, is one of many Black men and women that have been murdered by police in recent years. The sad truth is that his case is not unique. The way you saw my brother tortured and murdered on camera is the way Black people are treated by police in America.
You watched my brother die. That could have been me. I am my brother’s keeper. You in the United Nations are your brothers and sisters’ keepers in America, and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother George Floyd. I am asking you to help him. I am asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us- Black people in America.
I hope that you will consider establishing an independent commission of inquiry to investigate police killings of Black people in America, and the violence used against peaceful protestors who are reminding the world that Black Lives Matter.
Similar Stories
2
1
2
Statements , Conferences | HRC , OHCHR
Interactive dialogue with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on his oral update on Ukraine
1
1
1
Statements , Conferences | HRC , OHCHR
Presentation of the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights updating the database of business enterprises involved in certain activities in the Israeli settlements.
1
1
1
Conferences , Statements | HRC
Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation
1
1
1
Statements , Conferences | HRC
Interactive dialogue with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine
1
1
1
Statements , Conferences | HRC
The Human Rights is holding an Urgent debate to “discuss the recent military aggression launched by Israel against the State of Qatar on 9 September 2025”.
1
1
2
Statements | UNOG
Haut-Commissaire des Nations Unies aux droits de l'homme, Volker Türk - Dialogue interactif renforcé sur la République démocratique du Congo, 60e session du Conseil des droits de l'homme
1
1
1
Statements , Conferences | HRC
Interactive dialogue on the situation of human rights in the Sudan.
1
2
1
Statements , Conferences | HRC
"Women and girls face extreme forms of gender-based discrimination and oppression that amount to systematic gender persecution", said UN deputy rights chief at the enhanced interactive dialogue on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan.
1
2
1
Statements , Conferences | HRC
"Government in Sri Lanka needs decisive action on justice and accountability, essential to forging a future of healing, reconciliation and sustainable peace," says UN rights chief at the interactive dialogue on the situation of human rights in the country.
1
3
1
Statements , Conferences | HRC
UN rights chief condemns escalation of persecution of the Muslim Rohingya minority in Rakhine State at the enhanced interactive dialogue on the situation of human rights in the country.
1
2
1
Statements , Conferences | HRC , UNOG
“We need to safeguard eighty years of progress on freedom, equality and justice”, said Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the opening of the 60th UN Human Rights Council session.
3
36
1
2
Edited News , Statements , Images , Conferences | HRC , OCHA , UNOG
A record 383 aid workers were killed last year with hundreds more wounded, kidnapped and detained, the UN’s top aid official said on Tuesday in a call for accountability, at a solemn ceremony in Geneva to mark World Humanitarian Day.