LONDON Racism is a global problem which should be treated as seriously in countries such as Britain as in those which have a poor human rights record such as Turkey, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

Kate Gilmore, chief executive of the human rights group's international secretariat, warned that the challenges of stamping out racial discrimination were now much closer to home.

Speaking ahead of a UN conference on racism in South Africa next month, she said that whereas racism was previously only thought to be a problem in certain countries such as South Africa before apartheid, it was now global.

Glimore said: "The challenges have now shifted, not away but closer to home.

"Racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia are an enormous challenge to the international community.

"The challenges are as much domestic as they are global."

She said recent race riots in northern England were evidence that racial problems were enveloping "virtually every country in the world."

Gilmore, speaking at the launch of a new Amnesty report on Racism and the Administration of Justice, urged all countries to play their part in erasing racial discrimination.

"We need governments to understand that the battle against racism starts at home," Gilmore said. "The British race riots remind everybody of how close to home the challenges are."

The British government, she said, was guilty of an "absolutely inadequate" response to allegations of police brutality and deaths in custody.

"The government in the UK, including its police force, in Amnesty International's view, falls below the standards that every citizen could reasonably expect of it.

"Its response to reports of ill-treatment by police, to deaths in custody and to the investigation of racism at the hands of police officials has been absolutely inadequate, and to the extent that it has failed to follow with due diligence the appropriate actions these reports of abuse, then it shares responsibility for their perpetration."

According to the report, research in Britain has shown that police use harsher measures against the Black community and target particular practices on it such as stop-and-search operations.

Black people also faced more serious charges for the same offences than whites, were more likely to be imprisoned, and were under-represented among officials of the criminal justice system.

Meanwhile in India, more than 160 million Dalits, formerly known as "untouchables", are vulnerable to a range of human rights abuses because their caste means police do not investigate crimes against them.

The report also highlighted cases in Turkey, where the Kurdish community is not recognized in law, and publicly referring to "the Kurdish people" can lead to a prison sentence.