GENEVA — The UN human rights committee on Thursday, July 24, disparaged Britain over growing anti-Muslim sentiments, calling for reconsidering its draconian anti-terror measures.
“Negative public attitudes towards Muslim members of society continued to develop in Britain,” said the committee in a summary cited by Reuters.
The 9-member body, composed of legal experts from a range of countries, said the government should take firm measures to fight the negative public attitudes towards Muslims.
The government “should take energetic measures to eliminate this phenomenon and ensure that authors of such acts of discrimination on the basis of religion are adequately deterred and sanctioned”.
The stricture was issued after London presented a report earlier this month on how it was carrying out obligations under 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Britain is home to nearly 2 million Muslims.
Since the 7/7 attacks, which killed 56 commuters including 4 Muslim bombers, British Muslims have complained of a growing Islamophobic climate in the European country.
A Financial Times opinion poll has showed recently that Britain is the most suspicious nation about Muslims.
Anti-terror
The UN committee also pressed the British government to ease back its tough its anti-terror measures.
People suspected of being involved in terrorism and subject to control orders and curfews limiting their movements should be “promptly charged with a criminal offence” and their lawyers given access to the evidence against them, it said.
The committee also criticized government plans to extend pre-trial detention of terror suspects from 28 to 42 days.
Britain’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday, June 11, voted to extend the pre-charge detention of terror suspects to 42 from the current 28 days.
“Suspects should be brought to court within a reasonable period of time, or released,” said the UN body.
British Muslims have taken the full brunt of anti-terror laws since the 7/7 terrorist attacks.
They have repeatedly complained of maltreatment by police for no apparent reason other than being Muslim.
Continuous police crackdowns, searches and arrests have entrenched fear in the Muslim minority of being singled out and targeted.
The UN body also urged London to launch independent investigations into allegations of torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment of detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Britain “should ensure that those responsible are prosecuted and punished in accordance with the gravity of the crime.”
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