UK is institutionally racist, warns UN as ministers urged to act

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Racism in the UK is systemic and eroding black rights, a UN panel has warned following a historic tour of the country.

Experts have documented the trauma felt by people of African descent who they say suffered racial discrimination and injustice, with one woman asking: Will this ever end?.

They also found that a decade of austerity measures had exacerbated racism, racial discrimination and other intolerances faced by people of African descent, which had a negative impact on their fundamental rights, the experts observed. .

From the perspective of people of African descent, racism in the UK is structural, institutional and systemic, the group said in a statement.

We are gravely concerned 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 stop and strip search , they added.

The findings of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, part of the UN Human Rights Council, follow the conclusion of a fact-finding visit to the UK and Northern Ireland from January 18 to 27.

The group met with members of the public, activists, lawyers and politicians to identify challenges facing black people and make recommendations on how to address them.

Experts have pointed out that black peoples’ experiences with the state and public institutions, the private sector and society are tainted by the perpetuation of racial hierarchies.

Racist acts targeting people of African descent have remained constant and the experience is similar in different parts of the UK, experts said. They are victims and have no guarantee of an effective remedy from the authorities or the judicial system.

(AFP/Getty)

The group called on the UK government to do more to pay reparations for its role in transatlantic slavery and the trafficking of Africans and to do more to ensure the rehabilitation, restoration and reconciliation of the state with its people.

According to Catherine S. Namakula, chair of the task force, it is imperative to streamline accessible, independent and effective complaint mechanisms to combat racism, ensure police accountability, fair trial guarantees for all persons and reparations for all those affected by the Windrush scandal.

The UN findings come after the task force met with bereaved families, including relatives of Chris Kaba with BLAM UK; Oladeji Omishore and Sean Rigg, alongside the charity Inquest.

Its director, Deborah Coles, said: Inquest sees the impact of structural racism on all of our work, from deaths in police custody and detention to the fire at Grenfell Tower. We view these deaths within the broader context of policing, prison, immigration, healthcare, and legal systems to maintain and exacerbate racial inequality and discrimination against black people.

Chris Kaba was shot and killed by police

(Average AP)

Failure to examine the potential role of racism in state-related deaths means it remains invisible and shielded from scrutiny. Black people die disproportionately from contact with the police and are overrepresented in the prison system. These deaths routinely expose racist attitudes of state agents, racial stereotyping, inhumane treatment, excessive use of force, and systematic neglect of the mental and physical well-being of black people.

To end the continued injustice of contentious deaths of people of African descent, we must in the short term develop targeted investigation and monitoring of these deaths. In the long run, we need to turn the resources of the criminal justice system over to communities and social welfare, health, housing, education and welfare.

It comes after the group dismissed the findings of the government-backed Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities report, authored by Tony Sewell, as an attempt to normalize white supremacy in April 2021.

The controversial and widely disputed report said racism was a real force but Britain was no longer a country where the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities.

The Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities was chaired by Dr Tony Sewell

(Change.org)

Its chairman, Mr Sewell, said he had found no evidence of institutional racism, and the report criticized the way the term was applied, saying it should not be used as a catch-all phrase. anything for any microaggression.

The UN experts will present a report with their findings and recommendations to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2023.

A government spokesperson said: We strongly reject most of these findings. The report mistakenly views people of African descent as a single homogeneous group and presents a superficial analysis of complex issues that fails to consider all possible causes of disparities, not just race.

We are proud that the UK is an open, tolerant and welcoming country, but this hard-won global reputation is not adequately reflected in this report. We are not complacent and acknowledge that some people experience racism in Britain, but we are very clear that it has no place in our society and must be eradicated.

The UK government has made great strides in tackling racial and ethnic disparities, most recently with our groundbreaking Inclusive Britain strategy, which focuses on closing the achievement gap between people of different ethnic backgrounds. Instead of sowing division, we must celebrate the fact that this country is striving to give everyone, from every community, in every corner of the UK, the opportunity to prosper and succeed.

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