Greece to face review by UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination

GENEVA (28 July 2016) – Greece’s record on tackling racial discrimination will face scrutiny by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on 3 and 4 August in Geneva. Greece is one of the 177 States that have ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and so is reviewed regularly by the Committee of 18 international independent experts. 

Among the possible issues for discussion between CERD members and a delegation from the Greek Government are:

• Prohibition of racist organisations;
• Impact of laws and other measures to curb hate speech and racist violence, including in political sphere and media; and to bring alleged perpetrators to justice;
• Ethno-religious composition of Greek population, recognition of minorities;
• Steps to prevent and investigate excessive use of force by police against Roma and foreigners;
• Situation of Roma community, in particular their access to social services;
• Situation of migrants, including those in an irregular situation, asylum seekers and refugees, in particular in relation to education, housing, health services and employment;
• Measures to end automatic detention of undocumented migrants, especially families and children, for long periods;
• Access to immigration and asylum procedures; guardians for unaccompanied minors; protection from refoulement.

The review will take place on 3 August from 15:00 – 18:00 and on 4 August from 10:00 – 13:00 at Palais Wilson in Geneva, and will be webcast at http://webtv.un.org/

The Committee will also hear from other UN entities and NGOs. More information here:
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1073&Lang=en

The Committee will hold a press conference in Geneva at 13:30 on Friday 26 August to discuss its findings on Greece and the other countries being reviewed – the UK Paraguay, South Africa, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The findings, officially known as concluding observations, will be published here on 26 August: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1073&Lang=en

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Liz Throssell - +41 22 917 9466 / ethrossell@ohchr.org

Background

Members of CERD are independent human rights experts drawn from around the world, who serve in their personal capacity and not as representatives of States parties. The Committee’s concluding observations are an independent assessment of States’ compliance with their human rights obligations under the treaty. More information on the Committee: http://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/cerd/pages/cerdindex.aspx

The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 21 December 1965. More information on the Convention’s 50th anniversary here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CERD/50/Pages/Icerd50.aspx

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