You must be nicer to Muslims, Britain is told by UN human rights chiefs
Britain was told yesterday by a United Nations committee to take firm action to combat ‘negative public attitudes’ towards Muslims.
The nine-member human rights committee also criticised some of the UK’s antiterror measures.
The body, which is composed of legal experts, said it was concerned ‘ negative public attitudes towards Muslim members of society’ continued to develop in Britain.
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 committee expressed concern over the Government’s plans to extend pre-trial detention of terrorist suspects from 28 to 42 days. Suspects should be brought to court ‘within a reasonable period of time, or released’.
[…]The committee made its comments in response to reports from the UK and Ireland on how they were carrying out their obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The committee has members from Britain, Ireland, Australia, Benin, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Mauritius and Sweden. They are expected to be independent of their governments.