HR/CERD/98/25
17 March 1998


The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this afternoon expressed concern over the rising number of acts of racial discrimination and ethnic conflicts in the Russian Federation. The expert group also declared itself worried over incidents of xenophobia, anti-Semitism, racial discrimination and racial violence in Switzerland.

The Committee's comments came as it adopted concluding observations on reports submitted by the two countries and examined over the last two weeks. The expert panel is in charge of monitoring the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination in 150 countries, including Russia and Switzerland.

In the concluding observations, the Committee recommended that Russia reinforce its measures to protect human rights in Chechnya, Ingushetia and North Ossetia. Measures should be taken in particular to ensure that serious breaches of international humanitarian law do not remain unpunished, that the victims be afforded just and adequate reparation and that normal conditions of life and of return be ensured for displaced persons.

The Committee also invited the Russian Federation to provide, in its next report, further information on complaints and court cases related to racial discrimination; on measures to ensure the adequate development and protection of less developed groups within the Federation, and on the situation of Gypsies or Roma.

Concerning Switzerland, the Committee, while noting that the current Swiss immigration policy could be subject to revision, expressed disquiet over the current so-called three-circle-model immigration policy which classified foreigners on the basis of their national origin. The Committee considered the conception and effect of this policy to be stigmatizing and discriminatory, and therefore contrary to the principles of the Convention.

Among other recommendations, the Committee urged the Government of Switzerland to reconsider the reservation made to article 2, paragraph 1(a) of the Convention requiring that each State Party undertake to engage in no act or practice of racial discrimination and ensure that all public authorities and public institutions act in conformity with this obligation.

Finalized versions of concluding observations on all reports examined at this session will be issued Friday, 20 March, the final day of the Committee's annual winter meeting.

Also this afternoon, Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr, Chairman of the Committee, said experts were occasionally subject to threats and pressures. He had been approached yesterday by a person from a non-governmental organization requesting clarifications on a statement he had made during the examination of the report of Switzerland regarding the book by French author Roger Garaudy entitled, 'Les mythes fondateurs de la politique israelienne' (see document CERD/C/SR.1248). The person had accused him, a Semite, of being anti-Semitic. The person had also accused him of denying the Holocaust. Moreover, the person in question had said an article would be published affirming that more than half of the Committee's members were anti-Semites. Such threats did not work with the Committee or with its members.

The panel of experts will reconvene at 10 a.m. tomorrow to continue work on concluding observations.