The United Nations has called on the UK to take immediate action against ‘racist hate speech’, including that spread by politicians, claiming a concern for ‘hate crimes’ and ‘far-right’ violence.
The United Nations issued a stern warning to the United Kingdom on Friday, urging the country to take decisive action against rising ‘racist hate speech’, including statements made by politicians and public figures. The call to action was part of a report released at the U.N.’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, which highlighted the persistence of hate speech in mainstream media, online platforms, and political discourse.
The report, which includes the UK alongside countries such as Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Venezuela, stresses the need for immediate measures to combat the spread of racist ideas and rhetoric. While the report did not provide specific examples of hate speech in the UK, it emphasized the importance of authorities publicly condemning such language and formally rejecting the dissemination of racist ideologies.
The U.N. report expressed particular concern about the activities of alleged ‘far-right ‘and ‘white supremacist’ groups, especially during recent anti-mass migration riots across England and Northern Ireland. The committee behind the report alleged a sharp increase in racist acts and violence, particularly against minorities*, asylum seekers, and refugees.
These recommendations come as part of a four-year external review of the UK’s progress in tackling racial discrimination, a requirement for countries that are signatories to international conventions on racial equality. The U.N. Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination also urged the UK to address issues such as racial profiling by police and discrimination in areas like criminal justice, housing, education, and healthcare.
The committee expressed disappointment and concern over what it described as a persistent and, in some cases, increasing trend of hate crimes and hate speech in the UK. The report highlighted incidents of violence against minorities* during the riots in late July and early August as particularly troubling.
The U.N.’s report follows a 2021 study that criticized the UK’s counter-terrorism efforts for disproportionately focusing on the political right, at the expense of addressing the threat posed by Islamist extremism. The study, conducted by the Henry Jackson Society, argued that political correctness had led to a “fundamental mismatch” between the actual terror threat from Islamic extremism and the resources allocated to counter it. The UK’s security services themselves acknowledged in 2019 that the number of far-right terror cases was “absolutely dwarfed” by those involving Islamist extremists.
The full U.N. report, which outlines these concerns and recommendations in detail, can be accessed here.
