Belgium’s police-related racial violence concerns UN body

<p>BRUSSELS &mdash; A U.N. rights committee expressed concerns Monday about police-related racial violence in Belgium and asked the country to allow thorough investigations of the alleged incidents.</p>
<p>The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which is made of 18 independent experts, also called for more ethnic diversity in the country’s police force. </p>
<p>A top Belgian police official stepped aside last year after the emergence of a 2018 video showing violent treatment of a Slovak citizen by police officers at a Belgian airport. The man, who was in distress, later died. More recently, Belgian prosecutors have launched a probe following the death of a 23-year-old Black man who was detained by police.</p>
<p>The committee said in statement that experts were worried by “reports of an increase of police violence during the COVID-19 pandemic and recent anti-racism demonstrations, persistent racial profiling and hate speech."</p>
<p>The panel recommended that Belgian authorities “legislate an explicit prohibition of racial profiling and establish an independent system for dealing with complaints related to racial profiling." </p>