The UN Press Release

2024 - Our work with the United Nations

Our CEO, Aliya Mohammed, Christina Tanti, Head of Research, and Zainab Mohammed, Marketing & Communications Manager, travelled to Geneva in August 2024 with colleagues from Amnesty, Runnymede Trust, CRER and NICRE to give evidence to the CERD committee about the devolved and UK Government’s commitment to racial equality.

CERD (Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) is the United Nations body that monitors compliance by member states to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

After hearing evidence from Race Equality First and all UK NGOs in attendance, the CERD Committee concluded that there has been a rise in racism and islamophobia in the UK, particularly since the riots by the far right during summer 2024. The CERD Committee will be publishing its recommendation to the UK and devolved Governments in late August 2024.

Our Joint NGO Shadow Report for Wales which has 63 signatories, was curated by Race Equality First (REF) with input from a Project Steering Group and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) across Wales. The report evaluates the scale of racial inequality in Wales and the Welsh Government's commitment to eradicating racial inequality and upholding the ICERD treaty rights. In February 2021, REF conducted research and held nine consultations with 35 participants from NGOs in Wales. Consultations were centred around discussions on the broad thematic areas in the United Nations' Call for Evidence. This was based on the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD's) concluding observations from their 2016 examination of the UK Government and the devolved nations in the UK. Click on the link below to read our full Joint NGO Report for Wales.

It is part of our job, as a race equality council, to monitor whether the Welsh and UK Governments are committed to promoting racial equality. We do this by measuring the extent to which the Welsh and UK Governments adhere to policies set out by the United Nations and European Union, and the extent to which the Welsh and UK Governments uphold UK equality legislation such as the Equality Act 2010 and Hate Crime legislation.

Race Equality First does this in partnership with other charities and non-governmental organisations, such as Runnymede Trust.

Our 2016 work with the UN

Race Equality First’s CEO, Aliya Mohammed, travelled to Geneva in August 2016 with colleagues from Runnymede Trust and other race equality NGO’s to give evidence to the CERD committee about the UK Government’s commitment to racial equality.

CERD (Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) is the United Nations body that monitors compliance by UN countries to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

After hearing evidence from Race Equality First, Runnymede Trust and other race equality organisations, the UN CERD committee concluded that there has been an outbreak of xenophobia and discrimination against ethnic minorities in the UK, particularly since the referendum campaign:

One of the CERD report’s concluding observations was that “Many politicians and prominent political figures not only failed to condemn it but also created and entrenched prejudices, thereby emboldening individuals to carry out acts of intimidation and hate towards ethnic or ethno-religious minority communities and people who are visibly different”.

Aliya Mohammed said, “As a race equality council, we have evidence that racial discrimination is still a significant barrier for ethnic minority people in the UK and we have witnessed a big increase in racial discrimination and hate incidents since the EU Referendum result. We’re pleased that our feedback was fully endorsed by the UN CERD committee report and we look forward to seeing the action that will be taken by the UK Government as a result of our recommendations.”

The EHRC supported the UN report and in response to the report, the UK Government conducted a Race Disparity Audit of all public services in the UK which was released on 10 October 2017. Race Equality First was asked to assist with the Race Disparity Audit by the Cabinet Office.

Our 2018 work with the UN:

Every five years, Race Equality First gives feedback to the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the commitment to racial equality in the UK.

Though we gave feedback in 2016, in 2018, the United Nations Special Rapporteur to the UK visited the UK due to issues of racism in the media around Brexit.

The Special Rapporteur, Ms. Tendayi Achiume, asked Race Equality First to host a round table discussion between herself and relevant partners in Cardiff to give feedback on issues around racism in Wales.

Our CEO completed a report which included our collective feedback and recommendations around issues of racism during the EU Referendum / Brexit; Health; Anti-Semitism; Islamophobia; Education and Employment. After hearing evidence from Race Equality First and our partners in Cardiff, Ms. Achiume went on to visit other race equality charities across the UK. Ms. Achiume concluded that there has been an outbreak of xenophobia and discrimination against ethnic minorities in the UK, particularly since the referendum campaign and her visit and report was widely publicised in the national news.