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Sacred (body:mind:space) has contributed to a report submitted by the Community Policy Forum to the UN Human Rights Committee on the UK’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its other international human rights obligations. The report outlines various ways that the UK is failing to uphold the rights of Muslim communities and urges the UN to ask serious questions to the UK Government in relation to ten broad areas:

• Migration

• Islamophobia

• Securitisation

• Policing and the justice system

• Freedom of expression, political participation and the right to assembly

• Hindutva

• Violence against women and girls

• Charities

• Muslim children

• Media

“In 2022 the UK Government ratified the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention). While this is laudable progress, the UK Government’s strategy to combat violence against women and girls (VAWG) is continuing to fail to adequately protect all women equally. Indeed, despite ratifying the Istanbul Convention, the UK has made a reservation on Article 59, which obliges states to provide protection to migrant women. This reservation is in contradiction to Article 4(3) of the Istanbul Convention that dictates measures implemented “to protect the rights of victims, shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, gender, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, state of health, disability, marital status, migrant or refugee status, or other status. Moreover, a recent report from the Domestic Abuse Commissioner has revealed that migrant victims and survivors of violence in the UK are often prevented from reporting their abuse to the police and other statutory services as all police forces in England and Wales have been shown to share victims’ data with Immigration Enforcement. Consequently, perpetrators remain unperturbed with victims unable to come forward for fear of criminalisation, detention, and other enforcement action taken against them, including their potential removal from the UK… As will be discussed further below, this lack of specialist services has a particular impact on Muslim victims of violence, for whom public, institutional, and structural Islamophobia act as barriers to accessing support - barriers that are further compounded if those victims are from migrant backgrounds. Thus, the insufficient protection granted within the UK Government’s strategy to eliminate VAWG for women from migrant and minoritised communities contravenes its obligations under Articles 2, 3, 6, 7, and 26 of the ICCPR”

Download the full report: Report: The UK’s Implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) – Community Policy Forum

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