CERD recommendations 2024, paragraph 32
Plain English recommendation
Government should:
(a) Take steps to ensure stop and search powers are used in a lawful and fair way and on the basis of reasonable suspicion. There should be rigorous monitoring and review systems in place, including reviewing and amending any laws that relax the rules on stop and search and those that increase decision making powers of police;
(b) Take steps to address the overpolicing of schools with higher proportions of ethnic minority pupils. Introduce and strengthen laws to ban strip searches on children;
(c) Introduce laws that explicitly ban racial profiling and take steps to end that practice by police, immigrations officers and other public officials;
(d) Increase ethnic minority representation in the police and military, especially in senior roles;
(e) Set up an independent complaints system to investigate claims of racial profiling, racist violence, stop and search strip searches and excessive force. This system should help victims report these crimes. It must ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted and punished and that victims should have access to effective remedies and adequate reparations;
(f) set up or improve the way it gathers and assesses information on both victims and perpetrators of racial profiling, stop and search, strip searches, and excessive force by police and public officials;
(g) Offer continuous human rights training to law enforcement. Follow general recommendation No. 13 (1993) concerning the training of law enforcement officials in the protection of human rights.
Original UN recommendation
In the light of its general recommendations No. 31 (2005) on the prevention of racial discrimination in the administration and functioning of the criminal justice system and No. 36 (2020) on preventing and combating racial profiling by law enforcement officials, the Committee recommends that the State party:
(a) Take effective steps to ensure that stop-and-search powers are used in a lawful, non-arbitrary and non-discriminatory manner, on the basis of reasonable suspicion and with rigorous monitoring and review mechanisms, including by reviewing and amending legislative and other measures that lower restrictions on the use of stop and-search powers and strengthen high-discretion policing powers;
(b) Take steps to address the overpolicing of schools with higher proportions of ethnic minority pupils and adopt and strengthen legislation and other measures to explicitly prohibit strip-searches of children;
(c) Adopt legislative and other measures that explicitly prohibit racial profiling and take appropriate steps to end the practice of racial profiling by police officers, immigration officers and other public officials;
(d) Take effective steps to increase the representation of ethnic minorities in police and military institutions, including in senior decision-making positions;
(e) Establish an independent complaint mechanism to carry out investigations into all allegations of racial profiling, stop-and-search, strip-searches, excessive use of force and racist violence, facilitate reporting by victims and ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted and punished with appropriate penalties and that victims have access to effective remedies and adequate reparations;
(f) Create or strengthen effective mechanisms to regularly collect and qualitatively assess information on perpetrators and victims, for all incidents, complaints and investigations of racial profiling, stop-and-search, strip-searches and excessive use of force by law enforcement and other public officials;
(g) Provide adequate and continuous human rights training to law enforcement officials, in accordance with the Committee’s general recommendation No. 13 (1993) on the training of law enforcement officials in the protection of human rights.
Date of UN examination
24/09/2024
Original UN document
Download the original CERD concluding observations 2024 on the UN website.
Last updated on 11/04/2025