February 1998

British Sikh Federation submission to the United Nations, 21st July 2000

United Nations International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)

Contents

House of Lords, Upper House of Parliament

Selection and Appointment of King or Queen

Appointment of Judges

Bias in Political selection process

Recognition of Ethnic Minorities

Group Actions

Institutional Racial Discrimination, and widespread racial discrimination against Asians

Police

Colleges / Higher Education / Universities

Health Service

State controlled / regulated Television and Radio

Millennium celebrations

Human Rights Commission

Apology for British Empire Slavery and Colonialism

No compensation for Slavery and Colonialism

Lower levels of pay for women, Asian and black ethnic minorities

Commission for Racial Equality

Institutional Racism worse in British Energy than London Metropolitan Police

1. House of Lords, Upper House of Parliament

Protestant Christian priests are reserved a number of seats in the House of Lords, but such formal arrangements are denied to other religious groups, e.g. Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Other Christian groups, etc. This amounts to religious discrimination.

2. Selection and Appointment of King or Queen

King or Queen has to be a Protestant Christian and takes an oath to uphold the Protestant Christian religion, which is unfair to the other religions in the country, e.g. Christian Catholic, Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, etc. This amounts to religious discrimination.

The King or Queen should take an oath which does not seek to uphold any particular Christian sect or any particular religion.

3. Appointment of Judges

Appointment of Judges to the courts is by the Lord Chancellor, who is also a member of the political party Government ruling the country. Appointment of Judges should be carried out by an independent Commission, free of political bias.

4. Bias in Political selection process

Selection of candidates for political parties can at times be very unfair, so that well capable and desired candidates are prevented from being selected. A typical example is that of Ken Livingstone, who despite getting some 85,000 votes was unsuccessful, whilst the chosen candidate Frank Dobson only got about 20,000 votes in the candidate selection process. This biased result was produced by means of an electoral college, so that the person desired by the political leader, Prime Minister Tony Blair, could be chosen as the candidate to fight the election for London Mayor. Subsequently, Ken Livingstone won the London election with a substantial margin over Frank Dobson.

5. Recognition of Ethnic Minorities

Census 2001 questions failed to give fair recognition to the Asian languages or to the British Sikh Community as an ethnic group, despite the highest court having ruled that Sikhs were a separate ethnic group, and requests from all leading political parties to do so; the British Sikh Community was also larger than many other ethnic group categories that were monitored. Gaelic languages (mainly spoken by white persons) were monitored in a census question, whilst those languages spoken by Asians were not monitored.

6. Group Actions

The USA government changed the law many years ago to allow groups to bring legal actions in cases of systematic discrimination against women and ethnic minorities, and this law has been used to bring successful challenges through the courts against such discrimination. This has resulted in changes in the employment and progression of such groups.

In the UK many employers continue to practice racial discrimination against ethnic minorities and women in terms of recruitment, retention, progression, and delivery of services. The UK government should put in place similar legislation to that in the USA, so that group actions can be brought by women and ethnic minorities, since the previous legislation contained in the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Sex Discrimination Act has not worked since they rely on individual acts of discrimination (where it is difficult for the individual to gather enough legal evidence to prove the covert discrimination that goes on or for frightened witnesses to stand up and risk their own employment).

The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, headed by a Judge, showed that there was widespread institutionalised racial discrimination throughout all police services; the Government subsequently stated that institutionalised racial discrimination was widespread throughout all government departments, despite the existence of "equal opportunity policy statements" over many years. This is a process problem, not individual actions, which need a process solution of group actions. The UK government needs to put in place such a legal framework of rights and actions.

7. Institutional Racial Discrimination, and widespread racial discrimination against Asians

Institutionalised racial discrimination is prevalent in many large organisations and companies, e.g. Teaching (previously reported by the BSF, and later raised by the CRE Chairman as well), Medical, Water/ Gas / Electricity utilities, Commission for Racial Equality, Local Authority Councils, County Councils, etc. The Home Secretary should require all such bodies to put in place monitoring and setting targets for the recruitment, retention, and promotion of ethnic minorities.

Separate targets should be set in place for the Asian communities (Sikh, Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani), otherwise Asians will not get their fair share of jobs, and the majority of jobs would be given to the Black communities, e.g.

Black Jobs Asian Jobs

Commission for Racial Equality 44% 19%

Birmingham City Council 8.5% (5.9%) 6.1% (13.5%)

Sandwell Borough Council 6.6% (3.3%) 5.6% (10.8%)

Walsall Borough Council 5.74% (1.32%) 2.17% (7.90%)

Wolverhampton Borough Council 6.44% (5.21%) 5.87% (12.85%)

Merton London Borough Council 9.6% (5.9%) 2.7% (8.1%)

Hammersmith & Fulham London B.C 22.7% (8.2%) 3.6% (3.7%)

Corporation of London 4.26% 0.8%

Waltham Forest London B.C 19.2% (11.45%) 7.34% (10.60%)

City of Nottingham Council 6.3% (3.8%) 3.9% (3.4%)

Nottinghamshire County Council 3.79% 1.67%

Cabinet Office 6.0% 3.2%

Dept for Education and Employment 5.1% 2.8%

Dept of Health 7.6% 4.7%

Figures in brackets indicate population proportions from the 1991 Census; the job figures were provided by the organisations themselves. The figures for the central government depts. e.g. Cabinet Office, DfEE, Dept of Health were obtained from the Institute for Employment Studies, Equality Proofing in Performance Review in the Civil Service, April 2000.

From the above it can be seen that so many large public bodies practice racial discrimination against the Asians, and even the Commission for Racial Equality practices racial discrimination against Whites (who get only 31% of the jobs) and Asians, since Asians are twice as large as Blacks on a population proportion basis and have higher educational achievement rates according to the Government Office for National Statistics, e.g. those studying for a first or higher degree in 1995 (19-24 age) gave Sikhs & Indians: 29%, Black:12%, White : 13%, Pakistani/Bangladeshi:14%.

In Wolverhampton Borough Council alone, some 700-1200 jobs are denied to Asians, amounting to a loss of £11-18 million per year in salaries alone, whilst blacks receive 124 more jobs in comparison to their 1991 Census population proportion.

8. Police

The Public Inquiry, headed by a Judge, into the death of an ethnic minority student Stephen Lawrence, exposed the collective failure of the police to seriously investigate racist crimes and the racism within the police that leads to such an approach. The subsequent Report was a landmark in spelling out this racism at the heart of the police and insisting on the existence of "institutionalised racism". But this does not mean the racist rot in the police has gone away, from its canteen culture to its treatment of Asian and black people in the community. Too often Asian and black people, rather than the perpetrators, are treated as the problem.

9. Schools / Colleges / Higher Education / Universities

Asian and black teaching staff are seriously under-represented in schools, colleges and universities; those present as teaching staff are kept in lower job grades, despite having better academic qualifications (e.g. Ph.Ds) than their white counterparts. The UK Government should work with trade unions, ethnic minority groups and research bodies to end this form of racial discrimination.

According to the UK Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), despite the national increase of women students in higher education, women are under-represented at every level of professional staff:

71% of university lecturers are male

Women comprised only 7% of professors in 1997-98

15% of degree students in engineering and technology are women - but less than 1% of professors

50% of degree students in natural sciences / mathematics are women, but only 3% of professors

10. Health Service

There is tremendous racial discrimination against Ethnic Minority doctors and nurses, who form 23% of those working in the health services, since they are disproportionately confined to the lower job grades.

11. State controlled / regulated Television and Radio

The BBC is set up under statutory legislation, and is responsible to the Secretary of State; however, there are many aspects where the BBC fails to provide fair coverage for ethnic minorities.

(a). Racial and Religious Discrimination by BBC

The British Sikh Federation (BSF) presented a Petition to the BBC and Secretary of State on 11 December 1998 calling on the BBC to stop religious discrimination against non-Christian religions, and racial discrimination against the Punjabi language spoken by Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims in this country; the Punjabi language is spoken by 70% of all Indians and Pakistanis resident in the UK, and after English, it is the second most used language in England. The Commission for Racial Discrimination (CRE) has published a factsheet stating that Punjabi is the most spoken language by Asians living in Britain, see enclosed copy.

The Petition was signed by MPs, MEPs, Councillors, Students, Businesses, Sewing Machinists, Bus Drivers, Taxi Drivers, Housewives, Pensioners, etc. from all over the country, see Appendix 2 giving a list of some of the MPs, MEPs, and Councillors.

The Petition called for fair treatment in the provision of TV and Radio programmes for ethnic minorities.

The Petition recognised that the BBC produces good regular Christian religious programmes, such as Songs of Praise and at other times such as Christmas and Easter; these programmes promote and maintain the Christian religion and should continue. At Christmas time BBC Radio and TV provides extensive coverage to the Christian event through many different programmes for nearly a whole month, including Christmas coverage on BBC Asian programmes. However, the BBC does not provide any regular programmes on TV for non-Christian religions, which is clearly religious discrimination. The BBC was urged to treat all religions fairly and take action on the following points: -

1. Provide a regular TV programme for non-Christian religions as well;

2. The BBC Radio Asian Network in the Midlands still does not provide regular news in the Punjabi language everyday, despite the fact that the majority of Asians in the Midlands and nationally are Punjabi Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims who speak and understand Punjabi. There should be news several times everyday in Punjabi, with fair and proportionate coverage in Punjabi and other languages (e.g. Gujarati) for other programmes as well; instead, the BBC provides daily news coverage in other less well spoken Asian languages in the UK.

The BBC has stated that it has an “aspiration” to provide news in Punjabi, but is unable to state when it will do so; however, the BBC has recruited many Asian journalists to provide news coverage in other languages.

The BBC accepted in letter dated 9 February 1998 that Punjabi was the main language of Indians and Pakistanis living in the UK; however, Punjabi speakers continue to be unfairly treated.

3. The BBC was urged to extend the Asian Radio network to cover the whole country, and not just keep it in the Midlands. The BBC has now done this through digital broadcasting technology, as it had promised, by broadcasting on digital channel 930.

On the basis of large research surveys published by the independent Government Office for National Statistics, the following figures can be obtained for persons living in this country:

Indian - Sikh: 51%, Hindu: 33%, Muslim: 6%, Christian: 5%, Other: 1%, No religion: 4%

Punjabi origin: 70%, Gujarati origin: 17%, Other: 13%

Main language spoken: Punjabi:50%, English:29%, Gujarati: 12%, Urdu:3%, Hindi: 2%, Other: 4%

Pakistanis – Main language spoken: Punjabi: 48%, Urdu: 24%, English: 22%, Other: 6%

Nawaz Sharif, a Punjabi, was Prime Minister of Pakistan, whilst Punjabis Zail Singh and Inder Kumar Gujral have been President and Prime Minister of India respectively. The BJP political party now ruling the Indian Union and the State of Delhi, have stated that until the late 1970s Punjabi was the language spoken in Delhi by 70% of the people.

Whilst the BBC has a Policy and Book of Promises that it will not practise racial or religious discrimination, it is clearly not implementing those measures in the instances reported above.

(b). BBC Radio Asian Network bans Sikh greeting “Bhole so Nihal – Sat Sri Akal”

BBC Radio Asian Network has banned the Sikh greeting “Bhole so Nihal – Sat Sri Akal” at the start of Punjabi programmes; senior management of the radio station led by Mrs Vijay Sharma still does not allow daily news in Punjabi, does not provide a fair proportion of Punjabi programmes, does not provide a fair proportion of Punjabi songs / music, does not allow the presenters to speak in Punjabi most of the time, despite the fact that Punjabis comprise 70% of all Indians and Pakistanis living in the Midlands and UK and programmes are now also transmitted on national digital satellite channel 930.

Every song played on the radio station means that royalty monies have to be paid to the singers; so why are Punjabi singers being penalised by having fewer records played? However, the radio station allows greetings / plays music on other language programmes, e.g. Allah Hu (Muslim greeting stating that Muslim God Allah is almighty), Jai se Krishan (Hindu greeting that victory be to Hindu God Krishan), Khudda Hafish (Muslim greeting referring to Muslim God), etc. Even the small Mirpuri district in Pakistan gets its own 3 hour “Mirpuri” language programme.

On a language basis, Punjabis do not get fair treatment, i.e. do not get 70% of the language programmes (see enclosed Radio Times programmes extract spreadsheet )

On a religious basis, Sikhs do not get fair treatment either, with the other Hindu and Muslim groups getting much greater time coverage, see schedule below based on the enclosed Radio Times programmes extract; the Punjabi language is said to cover others as well as Sikhs, so that our greeting has now been banned. However, the other specific language programmes cover the other religions only, e.g. Muslims are covered by Urdu/ Mirpuri/ Bengali, whilst Hindus are covered by Gujarati and Hindi.

BBC Radio Times 18-31 Dec 1999 programmes for BBC Radio Asian Network

Language	Day of Week	Time (Start)	Time (Finish)	Duration (hrs)	Area	Sub-Totals (hrs)	Religious Group

Bengali	Monday	7	9	2	Birmingham		Muslim
	Tuesday	7	9	2	Leicester		Muslim
Sub-Total				4		4


Gujarati	Sunday	6	9	3	Leicester		Hindu
	Monday	7	9	2	Leicester		Hindu
	Wednesday	7	9	2	Birmingham		Hindu
	Thursday	7	9	2	Leicester