COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION OPENS SIXTY-EIGHTH SESSION

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this morning opened its sixty-eighth session at the Palais Wilson in Geneva. Régis de Gouttes was elected to the Chairmanship of the Committee by consensus. Also elected by consensus were the Vice-Chairpersons, Fatimata-Binta Victoire Dah, Raghavan Vasudevan Pillai and Mario Jorge Yutzis. Patrick Thornberry was elected as Committee Rapporteur. The Committee adopted its programme of work for the session during which it will consider country reports received from the Mexico, Lithuania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Guatemala, El Salvador, Uzbekistan, Guyana and Botswana. It also heard an address by the Chief of the Treaties and Commission Branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Maria-Francisca Ize-Charrin.

In her statement, Ms. Ize-Charrin said that activities to implement the High Commissioner's Plan of Action, in particular the need to make proposals for the establishment of a unified standing treaty body and for ways to strengthen and harmonize the treaty reporting system, continued. Numerous initiatives were under way. Ms. Ize-Charrin also drew attention to which was held last month, had addressed, among others, the need for a holistic and human rights approach to the issue of globalization and racism, and she stressed the importance of incorporating human rights consideration in the debate on human migration.

The nine members of the Committee who were elected or re-elected to the twenty-first meeting of States Parties to the Convention, held on 12 January 2005, were solemnly sworn in. The outgoing Chairman, Mario Jorge Yutzis joined Ms. Ize-Charrin in welcoming the sole new member of the Committee, Mr. Kokou Mawuena Ika Kana Ewomsan.

Following closed consultations, the Chairman said that Linos Alexander Sicilianos had been named to head the working group on individual communications as well as on the treaty bodies reform process. The working group on emergency procedures would be led by Patricia Nozipho January-Bardill and the working group on follow-up would be chaired by Morten Kjaerum, with Nourredine Amir acting as deputy chair.

The Committee will meet at 3 p.m. this afternoon to begin its consideration of the twelfth to fifteenth periodic reports of Mexico (CERD/C/473/Add.1).


Statement

MARIA-FRANCISCA IZE-CHARRIN, Chief of the Treaties and Commission Branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that activities to implement the High Commissioner's Plan of Action, which targeted discrimination as one of its priorities, continued. A special task force composed of staff from all branches of the Office, including the Secretary of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, was established to better coordinate the work of the Office in relation to all forms of discrimination, including, in particular, racial discrimination. In October last year, a brainstorming meeting was organized within the Office in order to reflect on a unified standing treaty body and to draw optimal benefit from in-house expertise. The Office had hosted an online discussion forum on treaty body reform from November to early December 2005, to consider issues such as the strengths and weaknesses of the current system; the possible form, composition and functions of a unified standing treaty body; how the protection of specific rights can be ensured; how a new unified treaty body could enhance implementation at the national level; and the different legal options for creating a unified standing treaty body. More than 400 users participated and over 100 suggestions were posted. Those suggestions would be incorporated into a concept paper to be finalized during the first half of March that would be circulated to members and all other stakeholders. A brainstorming meeting on the concept paper was planned for July 2006 along the lines of the Malbun (Liechtenstein) meeting organized in 2003. Ms. Ize-Charrin hoped that all this input, information and energy would achieve the goal of the reform envisaged: enhancing the protection of rights holders.

Similar efforts were also under way to strengthen the treaty reporting system initiated pursuant to the Secretary-General's 2002 reform proposal. The High Commissioner's Plan of Action emphasized the need to finalize the harmonized guidelines as soon as possible in order to allow the treaty bodies to begin functioning as a unified system. To that end, a technical working group composed of representatives from each treaty body, including CERD, which had met in December 2005, had met again last week to finalize the draft harmonized reporting guidelines for consideration and eventual adoption by each of the committees.

Ms. Ize-Charrin said that the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Follow-up to the Durban Programme of Action, held last month, had been widely attended and had discussed in greater depth the issue of substantive and procedural gaps in existing international instruments. The High Commissioner was requested to appoint five experts to undertake a study on the existence of gaps and to map a way forward. The Working Group had also emphasized the need for a comprehensive, holistic and human rights approach to the issue of globalization and racism. It was extremely important that the voice of human rights be heard in the debate on human migration. CERD's recommendation No.30, on the rights of non-citizens, would be of great relevance in that regard. She pledged the full support and commitment of her office to the completion of the important tasks ahead of the Committee.


Exchange of views between Chief of Treaties and Commission Branch and Experts

Responding to an expert who asked about the progress of the consideration of the working paper on treaty body reform and expressed concern that the unification of the treaty body system should not be to the detriment of the specificity of the various committees, Ms. Ize-Charrin said that the proposal was going to be considered by the General Assembly today or tomorrow. All the treaty bodies had now replied to the High Commissioner and they had all very much underlined their concern that specificity of each of the conventions should not be lost in the process. She reiterated that everything was still in the ideation stage, that brainstorming sessions were still being held, and she was convinced that a number of options and proposals would be developed by some of the partners.

With regard to a query on the effect of the establishment of the new Human Rights Council on the Committee's work, Ms. Ize-Charrin said that the Committee would be kept informed of the process in New York. It was likely that a proposal would be tabled tomorrow and it remained to be seen if that proposal would be acted upon by the end of the week. The proposal would be circulated to members.


Statement by the Incoming Chairperson of the Committee

REGIS DE GOUTTES, incoming Chairperson of the Committee, said that he would continue with the tradition established by his four predecessors. Specifically, he would try to be governed by following the five main concerns. First, given the plurality of views, the need for neutrality and impartiality. Secondly, the need for serenity and dispassion in the conduct of debates, which were on strong, emotionally charged topics such as racial and religious discrimination. In that regard, noting that in the state of current world affairs the Committee's legitimacy and topicality had never been greater, he recalled the need for the Committee to conduct itself in an exemplary way. Thirdly, Mr. de Gouttes said that he intended to pursue the monitoring of the Convention with vigilance and strictness. Fourthly, he would seek to improve the methods of work of the Committee, whether it be emergency procedures, harmonized guidelines, or follow-up to individual communications or to the broad ranging topic of the reform of the treaty bodies. Finally, he would pursue consensus and a spirit of cooperation in the Committee, both externally, in its dealings with States parties, as well as within the Committee itself, among members. The only limits on compromise to achieve such consensus would be the terms and mission of the Convention itself.

He recalled that the Committee was a forum that was motivated by two separate engines, Governments and non-governmental organizations. It was a dialectical encounter of an ongoing nature. He said that he would approach his Chairmanship with humility in steering a course between these two areas.

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For use of information media; not an official record

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