CERD concluding observations 2024, paragraph 14
Plain English recommendation
Government, including devolved governments and overseas territories and Crown dependencies, should:
(a) Put in place comprehensive anti-discrimination and equality laws throughout the UK, especially in Northern Ireland and overseas territories. These laws must clearly define racial discrimination. This includes direct, indirect, structural, multiple, and intersecting forms of discrimination. These laws must cover all public and private law fields and all grounds of discrimination in Article 1(1) of the CERD;
(b) Bring into effect the sections of the Equality Act 2010 that are not yet in force, such as Part 1 on the socio-economic duty, section 9 (5) (a) on caste-based discrimination, and section 14 on combined discrimination;
(c) Ensure the full and effective implementation of equality laws including through monitoring. This monitoring includes working with organisations who represent people who experience racial discrimination;
(d) Make publishing equality impact assessments a requirement across the UK. Ensure the public sector equality duty in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 is enacted across all relevant areas, such as immigration and law enforcement;
(e) Raise awareness about the CERD, domestic equality laws, and remedies for victims of racial discrimination.
Original UN recommendation
The Committee recommends that the State party take all measures, including measures by the devolved governments and by the governments of the overseas territories and the Crown dependencies, where applicable, necessary:
(a) To ensure the adoption of comprehensive anti-discrimination and equality legislation in all jurisdictions of the State party, in particular in Northern Ireland and the overseas territories, containing a clear definition of racial discrimination, which includes direct, indirect, structural, multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, covering all fields of law in the public and private domains and all prohibited grounds of discrimination, in accordance with article 1 (1) of the Convention;
(b) To bring into legal effect the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 that are not yet in force, such as part 1 on the public sector duty regarding socioeconomic inequalities, section 9 (5) (a) on caste-based discrimination and section 14 on combined discrimination;
(c) To ensure the full and effective implementation of equality legislation, including through adequate monitoring mechanisms with the participation of organizations representative of the groups most exposed to racial discrimination;
(d) To make equality impact assessments and their publication compulsory in all jurisdictions of the State party and ensure the effective implementation of the public sector equality duty introduced under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 in all relevant areas, including in the context of immigration and law enforcement;
(e) To increase efforts aimed at raising awareness among the population about the Convention, equality legislation and the remedies available for victims of racial discrimination.
Date of UN examination
24/09/2024
Original UN document
Download the original CERD concluding observations 2024 on the UN website.
Last updated on 25/04/2025