COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION CONCLUDES EIGHTY-THIRD SESSION

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination today concluded its eighty-third session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Chile, Chad, Venezuela, Burkina Faso, Belarus, Jamaica, Sweden and Cyprus on how these countries are implementing the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

The concluding observations and recommendations will be available at the end of the day at the following link.

In addition to its consideration of country reports, the Committee also held public informal meetings with non-governmental organizations from the countries reviewed during the session.

Alexei Avtonomov, Chair of the Committee, in closing comments said that the Committee had adopted General Recommendation 35 on combatting racist hate speech, adopted concluding observations on eight countries and looked at one individual communication. The issue of combatting racist hate speech was one of the most relevant issues that the world dealt with today, and General Recommendation 35 was a response, in addition to the General Recommendation on freedom of speech.

The next session of the Committee will be held from 10 to 28 February 2014 during which it will review the situation in Montenegro, Belgium, Poland, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Honduras.

Committee Membership

The members of the Committee, elected in their individual capacity, are: Nourredine Amir (Algeria); Alexei Avtonomov (Russian Federation); January Bardill (South Africa); José Francisco Cali Tzay (Guatemala); Anastasia Crickley (Ireland); Fatimata-Binta Victoria Dah (Burkina Faso); Ion Diaconu (Romania); Kokou Mawuena Ika Kana (Dieudonné) Ewomsan (Togo); Régis de Gouttes (France); Huang Yong'an (China); Anwar Kemal (Pakistan); Dilip Lahiri (India); Gün Kut (Turkey); José Augusto Lindgren Alves (Brazil); Pastor Elias Murillo Martinez (Colombia); Waliakoye Saidou (Niger); Patrick Thornberry (United Kingdom); and Carlos Vazquez (United States).

Mr. Avtonomov is the Chairperson. The Vice-Chairpersons are Mr. Amir, Mr. Cali Tzay and Mr. Lahiri. The Rapporteur is Ms. Crickley.


For use of the information media; not an official record

CERD13/024E