The independent United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent Friday said racism in the United Kingdom is “structural, institutional and systemic”, warning that people of African descent 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 independent human rights experts said in a statement at the end of an official visit to Britain.
The working group was established in 2002, following the World Conference against Racism, held in Durban, South Africa the previous year.
The independent group of experts is chaired by Catherine Namakula of Uganda, who is also the current chair-rapporteur; Guyanese Barbara Reynolds, the current vice-chair; Dominique Day of the United States and Miriam Ekiudoko.
The independent experts are not UN staff and are independent from any government or organization. They serve in their individual capacity and do not receive a salary for their work.
“Streamlining accessible, independent and effective complaint mechanisms to address racism, ensuring police accountability, fair trial guarantees for all persons, and redress to all persons affected by the Windrush scandal, are imperative”, said Namakula, chair of the working group.
“Austerity to the peril of fundamental rights, is a costly undertaking for the UK,” she said.
The Windrush scandal erupted more than five years ago involving those born in the Caribbean who were brought to the UK as children, being asked by the UK Home Office – despite living in the country for 50 years – to prove their status as citizens, some having never been formally naturalized, or having never applied for a passport.
Dozens were deported or told they would be removed from the UK, despite being legal British subjects in their country of origin, and hundreds suffered hardships, threats, and other deprivations of their rights, leading to the resignation of the then home secretary, in 2018.
The working group visited London, Birmingham, Manchester, and Bristol in the course of their official visit.
The experts will present a report with their findings and recommendations to the UN Human Rights Council, later this year, in September.
The Human Rights Council-appointed experts said they had gathered evidence of the all-too-real trauma felt by people of African descent who were suffering racial discrimination and injustice:
“A woman of African descent we met during our visit lamented, ‘will this ever end?’” they said.
The experts observed that a decade of economic austerity measures in the UK following the global crash of 2007-8, had exacerbated racism, racial discrimination, and other intolerance which people of African descent encounter, thereby eroding their rights.
CMC
