GENEVA, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- There remains an urgent need for comprehensive approaches to dismantling deep-rooted systems perpetuating racial discrimination across all areas of life, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC) said in a new report published on Friday.

The report, to be presented to the ongoing 51st session of the HRC on Oct. 3, warned that there remain "disproportionate outcomes for people of African descent in many countries, notably regarding access to health and adequate food, poverty, education, social protection, justice, enforced disappearance and violence."

"There have been some initiatives in different countries to address racism, but for the most part they are piecemeal," Nada Al-Nashif, acting high commissioner for human rights, said.

"They fall short of the comprehensive evidence-based approaches needed to dismantle the entrenched structural, institutional and societal racism that has existed for centuries, and continues to inflict deep harm today," the senior UN official said.

The report highlighted continuing patterns of allegations of discriminatory treatment; unlawful deportations, excessive use of force and deaths of African migrants and migrants of African descent by law enforcement officials.

It also underlined the continued disproportionate impact of the death penalty, punitive drug policies, arrests and over-representation in prisons; as well as lack of accountability and redress for deaths of Africans and people of African descent during or after an encounter with law enforcement officials.

"Where available, recent data continue to point to disproportionately high rates of deaths of people of African descent by law enforcement in different countries," the report stated.

"Families of African descent continued to report the immense challenges, barriers and protracted processes they faced in their pursuit of truth and justice for the deaths of their relatives at the hands of law enforcement," it noted.

The report said that while there has been some progress towards accountability in some of these emblematic cases, "unfortunately, not a single case has yet been brought to a full conclusion, with those families still seeking truth, justice and guarantees of non-repetition, and the prosecution and sanction of all those responsible."

The report voiced concerns regarding developments that risk exacerbating discriminatory outcomes for people of African descent through expanded stop-and-search powers in the United Kingdom, and the use of facial recognition technology in New York City in the United States.

In the U.S., the report said, concerns have been raised that "many cases of those who faced the death penalty in 2021 were also affected by concerns of racial discrimination and bias."

The report also highlighted concerning practices of strip searches of people of African descent by law enforcement officials, saying that according to data from a report of the Metropolitan Police Service in the United Kingdom between 2019 and 2021, 5,279 children were strip-searched by the force, and 75 percent were from a "Black, Asian or minority ethnic background." Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)