COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION CONCLUDES ITS NINETY-SEVENTH SESSION

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination today concluded its ninety-seventh session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Albania, Honduras, Iraq, Norway, Qatar and Republic of Korea, which were considered during the session.

The concluding observations and recommendations of the Committee are available on the Committee’s session webpage.

Noureddine Amir, Committee Chairperson, summarizing the work carried out during the session, noted that the Committee had held informal meetings with non-governmental organizations and an informal meeting with 61 States parties. It had also met with the Working Group on people of African descent. More had to be achieved in order to homogenize the Committee’s methods of work and to adopt universal declarations on people of African descent and indigenous peoples.

As for individual communications under article 14 of the Convention, the Committee had considered a complaint against one State party and it had found a violation of the right to nationality. The Chairperson reminded that for the first time in its history the Committee had received three inter-State complaints under article 11 of the Convention: Qatar against Saudi Arabia, Qatar against the United Arab Emirates, and the State of Palestine against Israel. The Committee had already informed the concerned States parties about the decisions taken and it was possible that the Committee would hold relevant discussions with representatives of those States parties in April 2019.

Turning to the early warning and urgent action procedure, Mr. Amir informed that during the session the Committee had decided to issue letters to six States parties in which it had requested the States parties to provide information on the steps taken to resolve the specific situation of urgent concern. Moving on to the follow-up procedure, the Chairperson said that the Committee had considered the follow-up reports of three States parties. On methods of work, Mr. Amir said that the Committee had discussed the possible extension of the simplified reporting procedure to all States parties, especially to States parties late in submitting their reports.

Turning to the 2020 treaty body review, the Chairperson recalled the problem of the insufficient budget for the Committee’s work, and the fact that Committee Members had expressed their views on the implementation of the recommendations contained in the General Assembly’s resolution 68/268. The Committee had appointed two focal points for the 2020 review. The Committee had also discussed a paper on the elaboration of a new general recommendation on ethnic and racial profiling, and it had agreed to produce the first draft for the first reading during the Committee’s ninety-eighth session.

Furthermore, the Committee had discussed ways to help States parties meet their reporting obligations. Committee Members had decided that non-reporting and late reporting by a growing number of States parties should be addressed firmly and they had come up with several concrete proposals. Finally, the Committee had considered the establishment of a working group on working methods to enable it to consider and decide on several new developments and pending issues, including timely and necessary amendments to its rules of procedure, increased workload, and technical assistance

The ninety-eighth session of the Committee will take place from 23 April to 10 May 2019, during which it will consider the reports of Andorra, Chile, Guatemala, Israel, Lithuania and Zambia on how they implement the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.


For use of the information media; not an official record

CERD18/032E