Human rights quiz

The United Nations has highlighted 29 areas of concern over human rights in the UK for which the government will have to answer in October.The UN's human rights committee this month issued a list of issues to be addressed at a hearing in Geneva.

It follows a meeting last month to identify problems, which heard from a coalition including the Law Society, Bar Council, Liberty and Amnesty ([2001] Gazette, 5 July, 6).Several of the issues raised by the coalition were included in the committee's list, such as: racial bias in the criminal justice system; what measures the authorities have taken 'to address and prevent incidents of racial and racist violence such as those which occurred in Oldham and Leeds in May and June 2001'; and justifications for the policy of dispersal of asylum seekers.Solicitor John Wadham, the director of Liberty, said: 'Serious human rights abuses are still happening in this country.

We welcome the way the committee has considered our submissions and those from other non-governmental organisations.

It shows the government cannot be complacent about its record on human rights - and cannot continue to use the Human Rights Act as a fig-leaf defence against all charges.'The committee has also raised several questions on the Terrorism Act 2000 and Northern Ireland - including what action has been taken on the murders of solicitors Rosemary Nelson and Patrick Finucane - as well as querying the erosion of the right to silence.Neil Rose