Race Equality First’s CEO, Aliya Mohammed, travelled to Geneva in August with colleagues from Runnymede Trust and other race equality NGO’s to give evidence to the CERD committee about the UK Government’s commitment to racial equality.

CERD (Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) is the United Nations body that monitors compliance by UN countries to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

After hearing evidence from Race Equality First, Runnymede Trust and other race equality organisations, the UN CERD committee concluded that there has been an outbreak of xenophobia and discrimination against ethnic minorities in the UK, particularly since the referendum campaign:

One of the CERD report’s concluding observations was that “Many politicians and prominent political figures not only failed to condemn it but also created and entrenched prejudices, thereby emboldening individuals to carry out acts of intimidation and hate towards ethnic or ethno-religious minority communities and people who are visibly different”.

Aliya Mohammed said, “As a race equality council, we have evidence that racial discrimination is still a significant barrier for ethnic minority people in the UK and we have witnessed a big increase in racial discrimination and hate incidents since the EU Referendum result. We’re pleased that our feedback was fully endorsed by the UN CERD committee report and we look forward to seeing the action that will be taken by the UK Government as a result of our recommendations.”

The EHRC supported the UN report and in response to the report, the UK Government conducted a Race Disparity Audit of all public services in the UK which was released on 10 October 2017. Race Equality First was asked to assist with the Race Disparity Audit by the Cabinet Office. Read the report at the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/650723/RDAweb.pdf