Mongolia faces review by UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

GENEVA (30 November  2015) – Mongolia’s record on tackling racial discrimination will face scrutiny by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 December in meetings that will be webcast live. 

Mongolia is one of the 177 States Parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and so is required to submit regular reports to the Committee, which is composed of 18 international independent experts. 

The meetings between the Committee and a delegation from the Mongolian Government will be from 15:00 – 18:00 (22:00 – 01:00 in Ulaanbaatar) on 1 December and 10:00 – 13:00 (17:00 – 20:00) on 2 December at Palais Wilson in Geneva. Live webcast of the public sessions at: www.treatybodywebcast.org.

Among the possible issues to be discussed: concrete responses to hate and racist speech, and hate-based violence; marginalization and discrimination of ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples; measures taken to protect indigenous peoples; negative impact of mining licences and concessions and other large-scale development projects; concessions granted in traditional territory of the Dukha (Tsaatan) without their free, prior and informed consent; reported restriction of traditional hunting and reindeer herding.

More information, including Mongolia’s written report, here:
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=998&Lang=en

The Committee will publish its concluding observations on Mongolia and the other countries being reviewed – Holy See, Lithuania, Egypt, Slovenia and Turkey – on 11 December here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=998&Lang=en . The Committee will hold a news conference on 11 December at 13:30 in Palais des Nations, Geneva.

50 years of fighting racism - #FightRacism

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

ENDS

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

To learn more about CERD:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CERD/Pages/CERDIndex.aspx

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