Monitoring Desk
GENEVA: Racism is systemic, structural, and institutional in the United Kingdom (UK), a group of United Nations (UN) experts concluded on Friday. They warned that people of African descent were facing the erosion of their basic rights.
Following an official visit to the UK, the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent said that public spending cuts have exacerbated intolerance and racial discrimination.
“We have serious concerns regarding impunity and the failure to address deaths in police custody, racial discrimination in the criminal justice system, the dehumanizing nature of the stop and search police tactic, and ‘joint enterprise’ convictions, they said.
UN experts visit different parts of UK
The UN group is mandated to report to the UN’s top rights body by the UN Human Rights Council. The experts work voluntarily and do not speak for the UN.
The experts’ group said it had documented the “trauma” faced by people of African descent who were suffering injustice and racial discrimination in Britain.
“A decade of austerity measures in the United Kingdom had exacerbated racial discrimination, racism, and other intolerance people of African descent encounter. They found that this trend harmed their fundamental rights.
The group said people of African descent felt the private sector and public institutions both perpetuated racial hierarchies.
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“Racialised actions targeting people of African descent have increased, and the experience is similar in different parts of the UK,” the experts said after visiting Bristol, London, Birmingham, and Manchester.
