GENEVA – United Nations human rights experts on Monday voiced devastating criticism of a report on race published by the British government last month, in which he accused the authors of repackaging racist tropes, history distort and normalize the white supremacy.
“In 2021, it is astonishing to read a report on race and ethnicity that re-packs racist herds and stereotypes, distorts data and misapplies statistics, and studies decisive findings and ad hominem attacks on people of African descent,” the UN working group of experts on people of African descent says in a statement endorsed by another UN expert who monitors the contemporary form of racism.
The British report, commissioned by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in response to the outbreak of protest following the assassination of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, concluded that Britain did not suffer from institutional racism and instead offered a model to other white people. majority countries. ”
Racism still existed, but discrimination in Britain, it was argued, was more a result of socio-economic inequalities than skin color.
The five-member panel of the United Nations, chaired by US lawyer and rights activist Dominique Day, which includes human rights activists from the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, said the report used dubious evidence to rationalize white rule and ignore the findings of others. United Nations panels and human rights signatories.
It was agreed that racial differences could not always be the result of racism or racial discrimination, but argued that there was also compelling evidence that the roots of these differences lay in institutional racism and structural discrimination, as they clearly did not reflect the preferences or priorities of communities. does not reflect. structural disadvantage. ”
The panel urged the British government to categorically reject the findings of its commission, warning that the historical distortions and lies’ could promote further racism, the promotion of negative racial stereotypes and racial discrimination.