Society calls for adoption of UN complaints protocol

United Nations' complaints procedures on discrimination must be adopted by the UK, a leading human rights solicitor urged this week.

The call - which came at a fringe meeting on the human cost of globalisation, sponsored by the Society and the GMB union, at the Labour Party conference - comes the week before the introduction of the Human Rights Act.

Complaints may be made to UN human rights committees, the findings of which are not binding but are authoritative.

Louise Christian, a member of the Society's human rights working party and partner at London firm Christian Fisher, said the UK should sign up to four long-standing UN conventions with optional complaints procedures, involving: racial discrimination, women's rights, civil and political rights, and torture and degrading treatment.

The UK is the only European country which has not signed up to them.

Ms Christian said that last year, the UN committee on the elimination of discrimination reported on unsatisfactory aspects of the UK's human rights record.

Its concerns included 'institutional racism' in the police force, and deaths in custody among ethnic minorities.

She said European human rights were not 'self-contained' and human rights standards are becoming increasingly globalised.

Des Farrell, national secretary of the GMB, endorsed Ms Christian's call in a speech in which he encouraged global rights for workers.

Jeremy Fleming