EHRC “not fit for purpose”.
So much for people being denounced as peddlers of conspiracy; the EHRC has been found lacking in its approach to BAME people in Britain.
The majority (over 75%) of Black people in the UK do not believe their human rights are equally protected compared to white people
Over 60% of Black people in the UK do not believe their health is as equally protected by the NHS compared to white people.
85% of black people are not confident that they would be treated the same as a white person by the police.
A parliamentary report has found that the Equality And Human Rights Commission has failed in terms of addressing systemic discrimination against black Brits. People raising concerns about this a matter of months ago were dismissed as conspiracy theorists clutching at straws; now we know it to be true.
As with all these things, there are solutions. The EHRC needs far more independence from government. In the same way the BBC finds itself accountable to the govt in order to receive funding, as does the EHRC. That’s an intrinsic conflict of interest no matter how much it is denied from all sides.
Is the BBC really going to do one over on the govt while it relies on its good will for survival? Is the EHRC going to investigate the Tories for institutional islamophobia when it’s already been cut and slashed by them for 10 years, and the likes of Cummings will be on the warpath?
We need bodies like the EHRC to be more accountable, more representative (no key figures at the top of it are black) and we need issues facing all minority communities to be addressed equally, not the dismissal of issues facing black people that many suspected, and now has been proven,
There’s a long way to go to make a body like the EHRC truly credible on the matter of courageous anti-racism, be it tackling systemic racism against black people, or the vile scourge of islamophobia and antisemitism across politics, or sexist bigotry and bile whipped up against migrants. Let’s recommit to that struggle for justice, and not relent.