RIGHTS: UN Committee Reviews British Record at Home and Abroad

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Oct 19 2001 (IPS) - The United Nations Human Rights Committee is concerned about the great number of racism claims filed against the British police and rights problems in the British territories in general, but expressed hope that attitudes and practices could be changed through training and education in human rights law.

The committee’s chairman, Prafullachandra Bhagwati, of India, lamented that racial prejudice is taking so long to be erased in the Britain, pointing out that a study by the country’s authorities had acknowledged that “non-white persons are five times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police” than whites.

The situation in the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Northern Ireland and overseas territories came under examination this week by the UN Human Rights Committee, which is made up of 18 independent experts designated by the member countries to verify compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights among the 140 nations that have ratified the treaty.

At the conclusion of its deliberations on the fifth periodic UK report, the UN committee’s preliminary responses included suggestions that the country would benefit from establishing a national human rights commission and that the lack of a “free- standing legal right to non-discrimination” should be remedied.

The report presented by the head of the British delegation, Joan MacNaughton, says the government is making efforts to confront the problem of low representation of ethnic minorities in UK public life. Just 12 of the 659 members of Parliament belong to minority ethnic groups, while in the British army the represent just two percent of the force.

The UK delegation reported that the government is committed to promoting gender equality, and that the number of women in public appointments has risen by 10 percent since 1991. The percentage of women holding senior-level civil service posts continues to be low, but the gender gap is narrowing, said MacNaughton.

Chairman Bhagwati, however, said the UK had not incorporated into its laws all of the rights laid out by the International Covenant. In the case of the UK’s overseas territories, none of the stipulations of the treaty have been adopted.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain, one of the superpowers of the colonial era, still maintains power over nine overseas territories: Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland (Malvinas) Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn, St. Helena and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

As far as the Chagos Islands, in the Indian Ocean, Henry Steel, the UK’s Overseas Territories Consultant for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said that it had been decided in 1965 to reserve the archipelago for British and US defence purposes.

The residents of the islands, approximately 2,000 copra (a coconut by-product) plantation workers, were relocated to the territories of Mauritius or the Seychelles.

Their return to the Chagos Islands, also known as the British Indian Ocean Territories, was prohibited under a 1971 British law, said Steel in response to questioning from the Finnish expert on the committee, Martin Sheinin.

A recent ruling by the British High Court, however, overturned the ban. Steel said the former Chagos residents and their descendants may return to the archipelago, except the main island of Diego García, a highly sensitive area due to the military base located there, said the official.

During the Cold War, Diego García became a strategic naval port for the UK and US war fleets. The island has served as the base for some of the attacks that the two countries have been waging against Afghanistan since Oct 7.

As far as the human rights situation in the nine overseas territories, Steel said that the death penalty has been abolished in all except the Turks and Caicos Islands, where “because of a technicality it continues to exist for crimes related to piracy,” but would soon be abolished.

On the island of Montserrat, thrashed by major volcanic eruptions in the 1995-1997 period, the state of emergency decreed at the time had been in keeping with the stipulations of the International Covenant because there had been “no need to derogate from the constitution.”

On the matter of self-determination for the UK possessions, Steel said Britain had invited the governments of the nine territories to “review their present constitutional arrangements with a view to proposing amendments or changes.”

The official said that in the case of Gibraltar, the British government is ready to accept any proposals for updating the constitution, as long as they do not undermine London’s obligations under international treaties.

The UN committee recommended human rights training and education programmes for the territories, but Steel indicated that some of the UK possessions, like the Falklands and St. Helena, have such small administrations and populations that implementing such a strategy is impracticable.

In response to the Human Rights Committee’s observations about restrictions on residency, trade and inheritance that apply in the Falklands/Malvinas to Argentine citizens, Steel denied that such obstacles exist.

The British official said there were no restrictions in force that apply specifically to Argentine nationals, but that all persons arriving on the islands, including British nationals, are subject to immigration controls, except those who hold “Falkland Islands status”. Only those with such status may reside permanently on the islands.

Property rights in the Falklands/Malvinas are regulated by a 1999 law that requires special authorisation for acquiring land there, except for residents.

As far as trade, the islands’ government prohibits direct exchange between the archipelago and Argentina, due to the latter’s stance on self-determination for the territory, said Steel.

Argentina has long claimed sovereignty over what that country refers to as the Malvinas Islands. The British Crown launched a military occupation of the territory 150 years ago. Argentina’s most recent dictatorship (1976-1983) attempted to re-take the islands in 1982, but were defeated by British troops.