An independent team of United Nations human rights experts has found racism in the United Kingdom to be systemic and eroding the rights of people of color.
Racism in the UK is “structural, institutional and systemic”, the UN human rights experts said on Friday, warning that Black people in the country continue to encounter discrimination and erosion of their fundamental rights.
“We have serious concerns about impunity and the failure to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system, deaths in police custody, ‘joint enterprise’ convictions, and the dehumanizing nature”, of the so-called ‘stop and search’ policing strategy, the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent said in a statement at the end of a landmark tour of the country.
The UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts said during their official visit they had gathered evidence of the all-too-real trauma felt by Black people, who were suffering racial discrimination and injustice.
The experts noted that a decade of economic austerity measures in the UK following the global crash of 2007-8, had worsened the living conditions with racism and other discriminatory issues that people of African descent encounter.
“From the perspective of people of African descent, racism in the UK is structural, institutional and systemic,” the experts determined.
“Racialized acts targeting people of African descent have remained steadfast, and the experience is similar across different parts of the UK,” the experts said. “They are victimized and have no assurance of effective redress from authorities or the justice system”.
The Working Group encouraged all stakeholders including the UK government, to do more to ensure the rehabilitation, restoration, and reconciliation of the victims.......more below
