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

GENEVA (30 November  2015) – Turkey’s record on tackling racial discrimination will face scrutiny by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on Thursday 3 and Friday 4 December in meetings that will be webcast live. 

Turkey 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 Turkish Government will be from 15:00 – 18:00 (17:00 – 20:00 in Ankara) on 3 December and 10:00 – 13:00 (12:00 – 15:00) on 4 December at Palais Wilson in Geneva. Live webcast of the public sessions at: www.treatybodywebcast.org.

Among the possible issues to be discussed: progress on adoption of anti-discrimination and equality law; efforts to combat hate crimes and discrimination;  enjoyment by minorities, including Roma,  of economic, social and cultural rights; ethnic minorities’ representation in public, political and other elected bodies; measures to promote mother tongue use and learning among children from ethnic groups; system to determine asylum, measures to protect asylum seekers and refugees from racial discrimination.

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

The Committee will publish its concluding observations on Turkey and the other countries being reviewed – Holy See, Lithuania, Egypt, Slovenia and Mongolia – 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 the Palais des Nations, Geneva, to discuss its findings.

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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