Today the Joint Committee on Human Rights have published their
Report “Black People, Racism and Human Rights”, which concludes
that the Government must urgently take action to protect the
human rights of Black people, including within healthcare,
criminal justice, nationality and immigration and democracy.
Against the backdrop of Black Lives Matter protests and the
Government's announcement of the Commission on Race and Ethnic
Disparities, the JCHR launched a call for evidence in July and
held evidence sessions between July and September. The Committee
commissioned ClearView Research to undertake a survey into Black
people's perceptions of whether their human rights are equally
protected compared to white people.
The Committee have now concluded that the Government, NHS and
police must now take action to end the stark inequalities in the
protection of human rights of the Black community, including:
1. The Government should set out a comprehensive cross-Government
race equality strategy which has at its heart improved data
collection on racial inequality, specifically on health, criminal
justice, nationality and immigration, and democracy.
2. The NHS must set a target to end the maternal mortality gap
whereby Black women are more than 5 times as likely to die in
pregnancy or childbirth than white women.
3. The lessons learned review or public inquiry into the
Government's response to Covild-19 must prioritise consideration
of the unequal impact on Black people.
4. In view of the fact that 85 percent of Black people are not
confident that they would be treated the same as a white person
by the police, the police must Set a target to build the
confidence of the Black community and undertake and publish
polling on Black people’s confidence in the police. The
recommendations from the Lammy Review and the Angiolini Review of
deaths in custody must be acted upon as a matter of urgency.
5. The Government must fulfil its promise to implement the
recommendations from the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, in
full, as a matter of urgency. The Home Office needs to embed the
culture change needed to ensure that people are treated with
humanity
6. 25 per cent of Black voters in Great Britain are not
registered to vote compared to a 17 per cent average across the
population. The Government should consult on the introduction of
automatic voter registration to tackle the unequal franchise.
7. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has been
unable to adequately provide leadership and gain trust in
tackling racial inequality in the protection and promotion of
human rights. There should be a highly visible national
organisation to champion and press for progress on ending race
inequality. For the EHRC to be, and be seen to be, effective, it
needs more resources, Stronger enforcement powers and must
include Black commissioners.
Chair of the Committee,
QC MP, said:
“The whole point about human rights is that they are supposed to
be universal. Yet here in the UK it is clear that Black people
are in no doubt that the protection of their rights are inferior
to those of white people.
We urge the government to take specific actions which will ensure
Black people have equal human rights. Commissioning reports and
apologising is not enough.”
