GENEVA: The United Nations Human Rights Committee is concerned about the great number of racism claims filed against the British police and rights problems in the British territories in general, but expressed hope that attitudes and practices could be changed through training and education in human rights law.

The committee’s chairman, Prafullachandra Bhagwati, of India, lamented that racial prejudice is taking so long to be erased in the Britain, pointing out that a study by the country’s authorities had acknowledged that “non-white persons are five times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police” than whites.

The situation in the UK, Northern Ireland and overseas territories came under examination this week by the UN Human Rights Committee, which is made up of 18 independent experts designated by the member countries to verify compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights among the 140 nations that have ratified the treaty.

At the conclusion of its deliberations on the fifth periodic UK report, the UN committee’s preliminary responses included suggestions that the country would benefit from establishing a national human rights commission and that the lack of a “free- standing legal right to non-discrimination” should be remedied.

The report presented by the head of the British delegation, Joan MacNaughton, says the government is making efforts to confront the problem of low representation of ethnic minorities in UK public life. Just 12 of the 659 members of Parliament belong to minority ethnic groups, while in the British army the represent just two per cent of the force.

The UK delegation reported that the government is committed to promoting gender equality, and that the number of women in public appointments has risen by 10 per cent since 1991. The percentage of women holding senior-level civil service posts continues to be low, but the gender gap is narrowing, said MacNaughton.

Chairman Bhagwati, however, said that the UK had not incorporated into its laws all of the rights laid out by the International Covenant. In the case of the UK’s overseas territories, none of the stipulations of the treaty have been adopted.

The UK still maintains power over nine overseas territories: Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland (Malvinas) Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn, St Helena and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The residents of the islands, approximately 2,000 copra (a coconut by-product) plantation workers, were relocated to the territories of Mauritius or the Seychelles. Their return to the Chagos Islands, was prohibited under a 1971 British law, said Steel in response to questioning from the Finnish expert on the committee, Martin Shein.

A recent ruling by the British High Court, overturned the ban. Steel said the former Chagos residents and their descendants may return to the archipelago, except the main island of Diego Garcia, a highly sensitive area due to the military base located there, said the official.

On the matter of self-determination for the UK possessions, Steel said that Britain had invited the governments of the nine territories to “review their present constitutional arrangements with a view to proposing amendments or changes. In response to the Human Rights Committee’s observations about restrictions on residency, trade and inheritance that apply in the Falklands/Malvinas to Argentine citizens, Steel denied that such obstacles exist.—Dawn/InterPress Service.