Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to mark the UN International Decade for People of African Descent.

The British Government has no specific plans to mark the UN International Decade for People of African Descent. However, we remain strongly committed to combating racial discrimination, xenophobia and racial intolerance. We actively work to tackle all forms of racism, both domestically and internationally. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has in the past highlighted the solid progress we continue to make on fighting racism.

The UK has one of the strongest legislative frameworks in the world in place to protect communities from hostility, violence and bigotry. We keep it under review to ensure that it remains effective and appropriate in the face of new and emerging threats. Key legislation includes specific offences for inciting hatred on the grounds of race, religion, belief and sexual orientation; separate racially and religiously aggravated offences; and powers for the courts to increase the sentence of an offender convicted of a crime where hostility towards the victim was shown to be based on their disability, race, religion, belief, sexual orientation or transgender identity.