UN warns UK on human rights abuses

UN warns UK govt. on human rights abuses

A UN panel criticizes Britain for its record on human rights.

A United Nations (UN) panel has criticized Britain for its record on human rights.

In a report published on Friday, the UN Committee Against Torture warned that prompt action should be taken to ensure the UK meets its obligations under the international law.

The committee also made some 40 recommendations to deal with a shortfall in the UK’s behaviour since the start of the so-called war on terror.

The UN panel condemned the British governmentâ„¢s failure to hold to account those responsible for human rights violations and for the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq.

It also raised concerns over matters including the forced deportation of Sri Lankan asylum seekers, the controversial Justice and Security Act and the failure to hold a public inquiry into the state’s involvement in the murder of Northern Irish lawyer Pat Finucane in 1989.

The report said the committee is “deeply concerned at the growing number of serious allegations of torture and ill-treatment, including by means of complicity, as a result of the state party’s military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan”.

In 2004, the Committee Against Torture called on the government to investigate British officialsâ„¢ complicity in torture abroad and in rendition of people to countries where they were at risk of ill-treatment.

In 2010, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced an inquiry into allegations of torture involving British officials.

Two years later, however, the probe was shelved and still no apparent steps have been taken to start a new inquiry.

The UN committee recommended that the British government “establish without further delay an inquiry on alleged acts of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees held overseas committed by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of British officials”.

Earlier this week, The UK government acknowledged that its troops in Afghanistan are unlawfully holding eighty to ninety Afghan nationals in the British army’s Camp Bastion in the war-torn South Asian country.

Furthermore, the High Court ruled that the British government’s response to claims of torture and abuse of Iraqis by UK troops was not adequate.

SSM/HE

This article originally appeared on: Press TV