Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination exchanges views with Special Rapporteur on Racism and a representative of UNESCO

CERD
62nd session
18 March 2003
Afternoon


The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this afternoon held a discussion with the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on racism and a representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), stressing the need to further implement the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Doudou Diene, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, told the Committee that carrying out his mandate required the cooperation of other UN bodies, including the Committee.
Mr. Diene said that the causes of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance should be attacked from their roots, and a social and political strategy was essential to fight the phenomenon. In addition to legislation designed to fight racism, the eradication efforts should take into consideration the mind-set up of individuals and the society.
Vladimir Volodin, Chief of the Section on Human Rights and Development, Division of Human Rights and Fight against Discrimination of UNESCO, said that UNESCO had achieved a lot in the fight against discrimination, particularly in education. UNESCO had been active in the Durban World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance and in the preparation of its Declaration and Programme of Action. UNESCO had also carried out a number of studies, including two on the concept of xenophobia and affirmative action.
Participating in the debate were Committee Experts Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr, Mohamed Aly Thiam, Regis de Gouttes, Ion Diaconu, Alexandre Sicilianos, Patrick Thornberry, Tang Chengyuan, Mario Jorge Yutzis, Nourredine Amir and Raghavan Vasudevan Pillai.
Before adjourning its afternoon meeting, the Committee discussed its response to the questionnaire sent to it by the Special Rapporteur on the rights of non-citizens, David Weissbrodt. The Rapporteur was carrying out a study regarding the status and the rights of non-citizens, and the extent to which differential treatment between citizens and non-citizens, and among non-citizens, was permissible. It also discussed a text in which the opinion of the Committee was expressed on the issue of reservations to treaties on human rights.
When the Committee reconvenes at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 19 March, it will continue adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Côte d'Ivoire, Uganda and Ecuador.
Discussion
DOUDOU DIENE, Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, said that his mandate was to examine the causes of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and other intolerance, which affected any society. However, he could not discharge his mandate alone without the cooperation of other institutions. He had been advocating for cooperation with other bodies such as the Committee.
Mr. Diene said that the causes of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and other intolerance should be attacked from their roots. A political strategy should be adopted to fight the phenomenon of racism. His experience had taught him that to strengthen interfaith dialogue, one had to go down to the very roots of the cause, and to examine how racism was born. In countries where racism had been institutionalised, such as the former South Africa, racism was still reflected as it was not easy to eradicate the mental- and social-set up of a society. The legislation designed to fight racism at the national level could only be effective if it was accompanied with specific measures to fight the scourge.
Mr. Diene said that he had compiled a report on the "Situation of Muslim and Arab peoples in various parts of the world in the aftermath of the events of 11 September 2001" (E/CN.4/2003/23). The situation of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia was so abstract that it should be treated through more specific measures.
The Special Rapporteur could not take account of what happened in the past, Mr. Diene continued. The work of the Special Rapporteur and the Committee should be complementary since they were dealing with the same issue. The eradiation of the culture of racism should be duly dealt with.
An Expert said that things had changed since the adoption of the Convention. Many European countries, for example, had objected to article 14 of the Convention, but now they were the ones that were supporting it. Other Committee Experts also expressed the desire to work with the Special Rapporteur whose mandate was similar to that of the Committee.
The Special Rapporteur said that his mission was not only to make "photographs" of a country situation with regard to racism; the path he followed in accomplishing his mandate went beyond that; he examined the situation at a deeper level and considered the value system and the cultural terrain of a society.
Mr. Diene said that his reports would be presented to the Commission on Human Rights on 24 March.
VLADIMIR VOLODIN, Chief, Section on Human Rights and Development, Division of Human Rights and Fight against Discrimination, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said that UNESCO had achieved a lot in the fight against discrimination, particularly in education.
Mr. Volodin said that UNESCO had been active in the Durban World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance and in the preparation of its Declaration and Programme of Action. A number of studies had been carried out, including two on the concepts of xenophobia and affirmative action. Workshops had been organized in Bangkok and Dakar on the emergence of new forms of racial discrimination in Asia and Africa. Similar consultations would take place in Moscow this month for Europe.
Further efforts had been made by UNESCO to eradicate stereotypes of racial bias in school textbooks, Mr. Volodin said. As a follow-up to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, UNESCO was preparing a manual on the fight against racial discrimination, which would soon be released.

Committee Opinion on Reservations
The Committee expressed its opinion on the issue of reservations to treaties on human rights, which it will transmit to the International Law Commission. It said, among other things, that when considering a report by a State party, and considering the legislative and other measures taken and the situation of the implementation of a human rights treaty by the State, a human rights treaty body might take a view on the compatibility of a reservation entered by such a State with the object and the purpose of the treaty.
The Committee also said that it believed that it could promote, as it was doing until now, by the consideration of reports of States and by the concluding observations and recommendations addressed to them, the complete implementation of the Convention, by the adoption of necessary laws and measures, and, when appropriate, recommend States to consider changing or withdrawing their reservations. For that, it should underline, during the consideration of periodic reports of States parties, that their legislation was not sufficient to guarantee the elimination of, and the protection against, any form of racial discrimination, as they believed when formulating their reservations, and to recommend them to fill in the respective gaps. That would be much more profitable than opening a legal struggle with all the reservation States and insisting that some of their reservations had no legal effect. A fruitful dialogue between the reservation State and the Committee might be much more beneficial for promoting the implementation of the Convention by the respective State.

Committee's Response to Questionnaire Sent by Special Rapporteur
on Non-Citizens' Rights
Responding to the questionnaire sent to it by the Special Rapporteur on the rights of non-citizens, the Committee said that often it observed that there was discrimination against non-citizens in areas such as the right to housing and the right to employment. It had recently encountered cases of ill treatment by law enforcement officials in relation to non-citizens. Discrimination was aggravated when combined with insufficient possibilities to bring complaints and obtain reparation.
The Committee said that it was ready to begin working towards an up-dated General Recommendation on the rights of non-citizens, in cooperation with other Committees.



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