Black church and community leaders have come out in support of a new online opinion poll launched by campaign group Black Mental Health to gauge public opinion on Government plans to retain the DNA of innocent citizens.
Although the Home Office launched a consultation on the retention of innocent DNA earlier this month, BMH said that the leaders of many black majority churches and large parts of the wider community were completely unaware of the consequences on ethnic minorities living in the UK.
Matilda MacAttram, director of Black Mental Health UK, said the implications of retaining the DNA of innocents had not been publicly debated and warned that many of the communities most likely to be impacted by the move may not be able to engage in the Government consultation.
“This poll allows everyone affected by this issue to have a say,” she said.
Currently over a third of the black male population living in the UK are on the DNA database, leading some black church leaders to fear that the reforms will disproportionately criminalise the black community.
The Government’s plans come despite a recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, that retaining the DNA of innocents is a violation of people's fundamental rights to privacy. BMH warned that whole congregations could be on the database without even knowing it.
“Up and down the country people from minority communities who are on the database are having their DNA compared to that at a crime scene where they haven't even been - it’s diabolical and something I thought I would never see in a Christian nation,” said Pastor Desmond Hall, chair of Christians Together in Brent.
“What we would like to see is all innocent DNA removed from the database and destroyed as soon as all charges have been dropped, 12 years in an unacceptable time to wait.”
Bishop Llewellyn Graham, of the Church of God of Prophesy, welcomed the poll, saying it would give everyone the chance to express their views.
“The final decision on how [the DNA database] is used will affect the future prospects of the innocent people who are on it. The over-representation of young people is of great concern. I will add my voice to speak out against this injustice and encourage others to do the same,” he said.
On the web: www.blackmentalhealth.org.uk
