UN warns UK govt. on human rights abuses<\/p>\n
A UN panel criticizes Britain for its record on human rights. <\/p>\n
A United Nations (UN) panel has criticized Britain for its record on human rights.\n<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
The UN panel condemned the British government\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s failure to hold to account those responsible for human rights violations and for the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq.\n<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
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”.\n<\/p>\n
In 2004, the Committee Against Torture called on the government to investigate British officials\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 complicity in torture abroad and in rendition of people to countries where they were at risk of ill-treatment.\n<\/p>\n
In 2010, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced an inquiry into allegations of torture involving British officials.\n<\/p>\n
Two years later, however, the probe was shelved and still no apparent steps have been taken to start a new inquiry.\n<\/p>\n
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”.\n<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
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