UNITED NATIONS COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION OPENS SEVENTY-SECOND SESSION IN GENEVA

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this morning opened its seventy-second session at the Palais Wilson in Geneva, during which it will review the reports of Fiji, Italy, the United States, Belgium, Nicaragua, Moldova and the Dominican Republic on how those countries are fulfilling their obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. The Committee also heard an address by a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, updating members on developments since their last session.

The Committee began its meeting by hearing the solemn declarations of its nine newly elected or re-elected members, who promised that they would perform their duties and exercise their powers as a member of the Committee honourably, faithfully, impartially and conscientiously. At the end of its morning meeting, the Committee elected a new Bureau: Fatimata-Binta Victoire Dah of Burkina Faso was elected Chairperson; Alexei Avtonomov, Francisco Cali Tzay and Anwar Kemal were named as Vice Chairpersons; and Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos was elected as Committee Rapporteur.

Opening the meeting, Régis de Gouttes, outgoing Committee Chairperson, congratulated the newly re-elected members – Alexei Avtonomov of the Russian Federation, Francisco Cali Tzay of Guatemala and Fatimata Binta Victoire Dah of Burkina Faso – and stressed how important they were for the continuity of the Committee's work. He also warmly welcomed the new members, Huang Yong-an of China, Dilip Lahiri of India, Pastor Murillo Martinez of Colombia, Ion Diaconu of Romania, and Chris Peter Maina of Tanzania. He announced the appointment of a new Committee Secretary, Torsten Schackel. He then presented an overview of progress achieved in treaty body reform within the Committee during his mandate.

Ibrahim Salama, Chief of the Treaties and Council Branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in a round up of new developments, observed that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was in the lead in the area of treaty body reform, as it had been the first to adopt revised reporting guidelines, in August 2007. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which had just concluded its first session since moving to Geneva two weeks ago, had then followed suit, and had approved new reporting guidelines at its last session. Other Committees were also engaged in the same exercise. The new guidelines were important not only in relieving the reporting burden of States, but in terms of harmonizing the reporting standards of the treaty bodies.

The Committee had also been closely involved in the follow-up to the Durban Conference and the effective implementation of the Durban Declaration, Mr. Salama said. Committee Member Alexei Avtonomov had presented the study of the Committee on ways to improve its procedures at the September 2007 session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on that issue. That session had marked the conclusion of the debate on the question of complementary standards, and the inaugural session of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of International Standards had been held on 11 February 2008. A questionnaire prepared by OHCHR would shortly be sent to the Committee and to other relevant United Nations agencies and international organizations to provide information in order to facilitate the Durban review process. The questionnaire would be a very substantive tool for the Preparatory Committee, which was scheduled to hold a second meeting in April and May 2008. The final Preparatory Committee would be held in Geneva in October. Between now and then, regional conferences would be undertaken.

In a discussion with Mr. Salama, Experts raised a number of issues, asking for clarification of how OHCHR saw the Committee’s role with regard to, for example, the Durban Declaration, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. An Expert was concerned by the lack of direct participation of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the work of the treaty bodies lately. To his mind, the work of the treaty bodies was a core function of the High Commissioner's office, and yet that appeared to be an area where budgetary cuts were being made. In his responses, among others, Mr. Salama pointed to the heavy workload of OHCHR this year related to the institution-building of the Human Rights Council. He further underscored that he did not see expansion of OHCHR's work in the field as in contradiction to the work of the core functions. The widening out of the work in the field was the edge of delivery, for which the treaty bodies were the basis.

When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m. this afternoon, it will hold a private dialogue with other United Nations bodies, and specialized agencies, and then hear a public briefing on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the Coordinator of the Indigenous Peoples and Minorities Unit of OHCHR.

Statements

RÉGIS DE GOUTTES, outgoing Committee Chairperson, in opening remarks, congratulated the newly re-elected members – Alexei Avtonomov of the Russian Federation, Francisco Cali Tzay of Guatemala and Fatimata Binta Victoire Dah of Burkina Faso – and stressed how important it was to have them for continuity in the Committee's work. He also warmly welcomed the new members, Huang Yong-an of China, Dilip Lahiri of India, Pastor Murillo Martinez of Colombia, Ion Diaconu of Romania – who had before served on the Committee in the past – and Chris Peter Maina of Tanzania. He also thanked former Committee Secretary, Nathalie Prouvez, for her invaluable service, and announced that the Committee had a new Secretary, Torsten Schackel.

Regarding headway made by the Committee in recent years, the meeting with States parties in 14 August 2007 had looked at some of that progress made, Mr. de Gouttes said. On 17 August 2007, the Committee had adopted new general guidelines on the early warning procedure and urgent action procedure. It had also improved the implementation of its review procedure – which sought to encourage States parties that were very late in reporting to make up that gap. The Committee's follow-up procedures had also been improved, and the Committee had strengthened its ties with national human rights institutions, which were systematically invited to participate alongside the State parties when they presented reports before the Committee. The Committee had also provisionally adopted a new timetable for submitting the list of questions to States parties, to ensure that they had more time to make their replies. All that procedural progress was now reflected in the Committee's revised guidelines, adopted in August 2007.

IBRAHIM SALAMA, Chief of the Treaties and Council Branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), highlighting developments in the area of treaty body reform, said that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was in the lead in this area, as it had been the first to adopt revised reporting guidelines, in August 2007. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which had just concluded its first session since moving to Geneva two weeks ago, had then followed suit, and had approved new reporting guidelines at its last session. Other Committees were also engaged in the same exercise. The new guidelines were important not only in relieving the reporting burden of States, but in terms of harmonizing the reporting standards of the treaty bodies.

Turning to the activities of the Human Rights Council, Mr. Salama noted that the Council had completed its institution-building task during its sixth session, which ended on 14 December 2007. The most important decision in that area had been the adoption of resolution 5/1, at the Council’s fifth session, which had set out the modalities, principles and objectives of the Universal Periodic Review. A welcome decision reached by the Council had been to feed the outputs of the treaty bodies – concluding observations and views on individual complaints and inquiries – into the Universal Periodic Review process. In September, the Council had selected the countries to be considered during its first cycle. The goal was to cover all countries in a four-year cycle.

On follow-up to the Durban Conference and the effective implementation of the Durban Declaration, Mr. Salama said that he was aware that the Committee had been closely involved in that work. Committee Expert Alexei Avtonomov had presented the study of the Committee on ways to improve its procedures at the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on the effective implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action meeting held in Geneva last September. The fifth session had marked the conclusion of the Working Group's debates on the question of complementary standards, and the inaugural session of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of International Standards had been held on 11 February 2008.

A questionnaire prepared by OHCHR would shortly be sent to the Committee and to other relevant United Nations agencies and international organizations to provide information in order to facilitate the Durban review process. Mr. Salama believed the questionnaire would be a very substantive tool for the Preparatory Committee, which was scheduled to hold a second meeting in April and May 2008. The final Preparatory Committee would be held in Geneva in October. Between now and then, regional conferences would be undertaken.

Mr. Salama said that, after two decades of negotiations, on 13 September 2007, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People had finally been adopted. That adoption was a step forward in the consolidation of the international human rights system and would provide an impetus for renewed international efforts to addressing the pressing concerns of no less than 370 million people.

In terms of promoting the Committee's work, OHCHR had held training workshops for various stakeholders in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which had provided training on the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination and on the Committee's new reporting guidelines. Another training workshop on the Convention had been held in Bangkok last October.

Turning to the Committee's present session, Mr. Salama said the Committee would not only examine periodic reports of seven States parties, but would also review the implementation of the Convention in States parties whose reports were seriously overdue. It would also consider several country situations under the Committee's early warning and urgent action procedure, as well as individual communications concerning violations under the Convention. In addition, it would begin discussing a new draft general recommendation on special measures.

In the ensuing discussion, several Experts asked for clarification of how OHCHR saw the Committee’s role with regard to, for example, the Durban Declaration, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

An Expert was concerned by the lack of direct participation of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the work of the treaty bodies lately. To his mind, the work of the treaty bodies was a core function of the High Commissioner's office, and yet that appeared to be an area where cuts were being made. The Committee had taken very seriously the High Commissioner's proposal to create a single unified standing treaty body. It had addressed very seriously the issues she had raised, such as the lack of attention to treaty body recommendations on the ground, and had made concrete changes, such as strengthening its follow-up procedures and streamlining its reporting procedures. But, if the Committee was not backed sufficiently, that risked destroying the system.

An Expert said that, in some areas of the world, it had not proved effective to try and instigate parties that were very late in reporting on a State-by-State basis. He felt it was important to work regionally, in particular in Latin America and the Caribbean, and he asked for the OHCHR's help in that regard. A number of questions centred on the Committee's specific responsibilities with regard to the preparation for the Durban Review Conference, and a call for clarity thereon. An Expert also asked what the role of the Universal Periodic Review would be in addressing the issue of States not parties to the major international human rights instruments.

An Expert was concerned about the continued assertions of "lacunae" in the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. He demurred from such an assertion, saying there were none. He also wished to reaffirm the Committee's position against the development of a single, unified standing treaty body.

Responding to questions, Mr. Salama said, as far as where the energies of the Office were being directed and budgetary issues, while some were saying the budget had doubled, that did not mean there was twice as much money for each section, and so if there had been five programmes or staff, now there would be 10. The past year had been a very transitional one for OHCHR and had seen a heavy workload. The establishment of the Human Rights Council, which had to put in place the new institutions that it was to rely on, took up much of the work of the High Commissioner over the past year. The issue of how to develop a human rights country review, that was to cover all issues, and was to take only three hours, was a huge undertaking.

There had also been an explosion of activities in the field, Mr. Salama underscored. In that connection, OHCHR was working on a new approach to capacity-building, both training and a new approach to monitoring compliance. Currently, OHCHR was responding on a very ad hoc manner to requests from treaty bodies for assistance, such as training sessions for States parties.

As for the High Commissioner's participation, Mr. Salama said that the High Commissioner had not forgotten them. Because he was addressing the Committee in her stead did not mean that she discounted their work. In particular, the High Commissioner counted a lot on the Committee's input to develop ideas about treaty body reform.

Regarding responsibility of the Universal Periodic Review with regard to States not party to other major international human rights treaties, Mr. Salama thought the primary task would be for it to urge them to ratify or sign those treaties, and thus it would become a tool for the globalization of those treaties. It would also point up some of the difficulties in the current system, with the complex reporting requirements. No new mechanism should be at the expense of the pivotal role of the treaty bodies.

Responding to a concern that the Universal Periodic Review would block out the visibility of the individual Committees, Mr. Salama said that, to the contrary, he believed it would be an additional showcase and attention-drawing exercise for the Committees' findings, which would be part of the review process. The exercise of compiling the different views of the treaty bodies on a particular country was a new and daunting task that should strengthen and not weaken their work.

Mr. Salama did not see expansion of OHCHR's work in the field as in contradiction to the work of the core functions. The widening out of the work in the field was the edge of delivery, for which the treaty bodies were the basis.



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