COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION OPENS NINETIETH SESSION

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination today opened its ninetieth session, hearing an address by Orest Nowosad, Chief, Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Committee also adopted its agenda for the session, during which it will review anti-discrimination efforts undertaken by Greece, United Kingdom, Paraguay, South Africa, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Mr. Nowosad, in his opening remarks, recalled the historic changes following the adoption of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination five decades ago, and said that despite this, the world was witnessing the hatred, bigotry and violence again taking hold in some communities, it was witnessing the hardening of polarizing positions, and retreating of some into corners of “us” versus “them”. The race-based police brutality and retaliatory killings, hate crimes against minorities, and racial abuse, discrimination and violence towards migrants and refugees were on the rise, with each death widening the gap between “us” and “them”.

Updating the Committee on some developments since its last session in April 2016, Mr. Nowosad said that the thirty-second session of the Human Rights Council in June 2016 had brought some significant developments with regard to the topic of racial discrimination, including the adoption of a resolution on multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against women and girls, and the presentation by the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism of a report on xenophobia in the context of the current migration crisis and a report on Nazism, neo-Nazism and other contemporary forms of racism. The twenty-eighth meeting of the Chairs of the human rights treaty bodies had taken place from 30 May to 3 June 2016, and had included meetings with the President and Secretariat of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the Chair of the Global Alliance on National Human Right Institutions. The Chairs had adopted key recommendations, including on informing the General Assembly of overdue reports to treaty bodies, the adoption by all treaty bodies of the San Jose Guidelines, and to consider a common treaty body approach to engagement with national human rights institutions.

Continuing, Mr. Nowosad spoke of the upcoming high-level meeting on refugees and migrants hosted by the Secretary-General at the United Nations General Assembly on 19 September 2016, which aimed to coordinate sustainable solutions among States to address the large movements of refugees and migrants and result in concrete commitments on the protection of refugees and migrants. The Secretary-General had appointed Karen AbuZayd as Special Adviser to consult with relevant stakeholders leading up to the Summit, and had presented a report to the General Assembly in which he had announced his intention to launch a global campaign on countering xenophobia against refugees and migrants. The support to this campaign was included in the Summit Outcome Document which was currently being negotiated in New York. In closing, Mr. Nowosad announced the appointment of the new Director of the Council and Treaties Mechanism Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Adam Abdelmoula, who would meet the Committee on 25 August.

Anastasia Crickley, Committee Chairperson, in her introductory remarks, said that 50 years after the adoption of the Convention, the world was facing the danger of losing the momentum which challenged everyone to contribute to the process of the elimination of racial discrimination, from bottom-up to top-down. The Committee had approached its work in a timely way and had raised and amplified its concerns through its general recommendations, in particular in relation to the independence of the Committee Experts and on hate speech.

Ms. Crickley then outlined key issues the Committee was currently facing, including the complexity of racial discrimination, stressing that the Committee had a duty to ensure that there was a proper understanding of xenophobia and continue to stress the intersectionality between racial discrimination and a number of other forms of discrimination, in particular types of racial discrimination experienced by women from minorities. Another challenge was the development of complacency within the system about racial discrimination and the attention dedicated to other forms of human rights violations and abuses, and in this sense it was important for the Committee to better communicate the messages of the Convention to States parties and to the public at large. And finally, the Committee, as any other treaty body, was challenged to engage with the ongoing treaty body reform process, and to continue to make contributions to the system as it had always done.

Several Experts took the floor to say that it would be important for the Committee to discuss the issue of neo-Nazism, and also to discuss how it could contribute to the treaty body reform process. They noted the lack of appropriate attention to the situation of minorities and indigenous people in the document that would form the basis of discussions by the United Nations General Assembly’s high-level meeting on refugees and migrants on 19 September.

In his response to issues and questions raised by the Experts, Mr. Nowosad said that the Committee would have a chance to contribute to the treaty body reform process in several ways, including through the Geneva Academy process. With regard to the document for the United Nations General Assembly’s high-level meeting on refugees and migrants, Mr. Nowosad noted that the preparation of that paper was a State-led process and noted that it would be useful to raise the inclusion of indigenous people through different channels in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The Committee adopted the agenda for its ninetieth session.

More information on this session can be read in the background press release.

The Committee will next meet in public on Wednesday, 3 August at 10 a.m., to hold an informal briefing with non-governmental organizations from Greece and the United Kingdom.



For use of the information media; not an official record

CERD16/012E