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Germany takes the stand, on Tuesday, at the UN Human Rights Council, which is examining how the country’s human rights situation has developed in recent years.
The session in Geneva is part of a periodic review that UN member countries undergo about every five years.
The German government’s human rights representative, Baerbel Kofler, acknowledged the challenges that her country faces, especially when it comes to racism and migration.
“We know that we have to tackle racist positions and discriminatory views in various parts of our society,” she said in Geneva, in a statement issued ahead of the UN session.
She added that Germany faces the challenge of integrating the many migrants and refugees who have arrived in recent years.
In a report that was prepared for the UN rights body, Berlin stressed that racism and discrimination have become key topics in police training, and authorities are trying to hire officers with foreign roots to create a more diverse police force.
These issues were also highlighted in some of the questions that other countries submitted in advance of Tuesday’s session.
“Following the recent large migration inflows, and the tensions around the anti-Islam ‘Pegida’ group, what steps is Germany taking to safeguard inter-faith relations?,” the British delegation asked.