COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION OPENS SUMMER SESSION

CERD
61st session
5 August 2002
Morning

Hears Address by
Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights


The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this morning opened its sixty-first session by adopting its agenda and programme of work and hearing a statement by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In his opening address, Bertrand Ramcharan, the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the Committee's thematic discussion on descent during its current session would constitute a necessary and important occasion to raise awareness on the issue. He said the term descent was mentioned in article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination alongside other grounds of discrimination prohibited by the Convention. However, the notion of descent had not always received the attention it should have and its interpretation had sometimes given way to misunderstandings.
Mr. Ramcharan said that the Committee had adopted a broad interpretation of the concept of descent in its concluding observations since 1996 by stating that the term as mentioned in article 1 of the Convention did not solely refer to race but also to the situation of castes. According to a report by an Expert of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, to this day, more than 250 million people remained affected by descent-based discrimination in various regions of the world.
Over the course of its three-week session, the 18-member Committee will review anti-discrimination efforts undertaken by the Governments of Canada, Senegal, Armenia, Uganda, Yemen, New Zealand, Hungary, Estonia, Botswana and Mali. These countries are among the 162 States parties to the International Convention, a treaty that first took effect in 1969.
Following a request by Saudi Arabia, whose initial report was scheduled for review on 13 August, the Committee decided to postpone its consideration. The Committee also decided not to examine the situations in Cote d'Ivoire, Tajikistan and Ecuador under its review procedure, intended for States parties whose reports were seriously overdue. Cote d'Ivoire and Ecuador had now submitted reports, which would be considered during the next session, whereas Tajikistan had informed the Experts that it was preparing a report to be submitted to the Committee.
The Committee is also scheduled to hold a thematic discussion on the concept of descent on 8 and 9 August. Many non-governmental organizations representing the victims of descent-based discrimination around the world plan to come and address the Committee on this issue.
Also this morning the Committee unanimously approved the membership of Mohamed Aly Thiam of Guinea to replace the vacancy left by his compatriot Expert Francois Lonseny Fall who was appointed as Foreign Minister of Guinea.
When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m., it will take up the thirteenth and fourteenth periodic reports of Canada. (For further information, please see background release HR/CERD/02/32, dated 1 August 2002.)

Statement by Deputy High Commissioner
BERTRAND RAMCHARAN, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said he understood that the second ever thematic expert discussion held by the Committee would take place during the current session, and that it would focus on the issue of descent-based discrimination. The term "descent" was mentioned in article 1 of the Convention alongside other grounds of discrimination prohibited by the Convention. However, the notion of "descent" had not always received the attention it should have and its interpretation had sometimes given way to misunderstandings.
Mr. Ramcharan said that the Committee had adopted a broad interpretation of the concept of descent in its concluding observations since 1996 by stating that the term as mentioned in article 1 of the Convention did not solely refer to race but also to the situation of castes. That interpretation had been followed by other UN bodies. According to a report by an Expert of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, to this day, more than 250 million people remained affected by descent-based discrimination in various regions of the world. The thematic discussion would constitute a necessary and important occasion to raise awareness on the issue.
Turning to follow-up procedures, the Deputy High Commissioner said that the Office of the High Commissioner and treaty body Experts were increasingly concerned with the need to ensure adequate follow-up to conclusions and recommendations adopted by treaty bodies. Both the Committee against Torture and the Human Rights Committee, for example, had adopted during their spring sessions this year a new procedure whereby one or several Experts would act as rapporteurs in charge of monitoring follow-up to the concluding observations adopted by those two treaty bodies. The new unit of the Office -- the Treaty Bodies Recommendations Unit -- would address both the need for an increased follow-up to concluding observations and recommendations and the need for an increased dialogue between treaty bodies.
Mr. Ramcharan recalled the expert seminar which took place in Geneva last June intended to explore the first draft guidelines on a human rights approach to poverty reduction strategies. The adoption of those guidelines was to be placed in the context of the major task undertaken by the United Nations over the past five years, including the overreaching development objective of poverty reduction. It would be of interest for the Committee that one of the key draft guidelines proposed in the context of the poverty reduction strategies concerned the link between poverty and discrimination. Draft guideline 3, among other things, said that "as discrimination may cause poverty, poverty also causes discrimination. In addition to their race, colour, gender or social origin, the poor are also subject to discriminatory attitudes by governmental authorities and private actors because they are poor".
In conclusion, Mr. Ramcharan said that his Office had adopted a Gender Mainstreaming Strategy last month, providing a framework to promote the integration of gender perspective in all activities of the Office for High Commissioner for Human Rights. The adoption of the strategy by the Office followed the wish expressed by the Commission on Human Rights in its recently adopted resolution on "integrating the human rights of women throughout the UN system".



* *** *