China, like-minded countries express concern over human rights situation in UK

GENEVA -- China and a group of like-minded countries on Wednesday expressed deep concern over the human rights situation in the United Kingdom (UK), saying that severe systemic racism, racial discrimination, hate speech, xenophobia and related violence have long been existing there.

Delivering a joint statement on behalf of a group of countries, Jiang Duan, minister of the Chinese mission to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva, said that these discriminatory actions are toxic residues of the UK's history of colonialism and trade in enslaved Africans.

Jiang pointed out in the joint statement that a number of UN Special Procedures have expressed their concern, but the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which was set up by the UK government, is still trying to deny the facts.

He further mentioned that UK military servicemen on overseas operations have committed killings of civilians but are still at large. The UK is trying to shield them from due accountability by way of legislation.

Also, he said, the migrant detention centers in the UK are operating under poor conditions and the rights of migrants are severely violated.

In addition, he added, the UK spread disinformation and provoked confrontation out of political purposes, using human rights as a pretext to interfere in other countries' internal affairs, and politicized acts as such have seriously undermined international human rights cooperation and are "deeply concerning".

"We call on the Human Rights Council to continuously look into human rights violations in the UK and take necessary steps to monitor actions of the UK government to correct its mistakes," Jiang urged.