HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ADDRESSES COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

24 February 2005



Suggests the Committee Could Issue a General Recommendation on
the Elimination of Discrimination in the Administration of Justice


United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour today told the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination that it was uniquely qualified to clarify governing principles and offer guidance to States on all measures necessary to ensure the elimination of racial discrimination in the administration of justice and suggested that a new general recommendation by the Committee on that issue would be timely and useful.

Mrs. Arbour said that racial discrimination, as acknowledged in the Durban Declaration, persisted in the functioning of the penal system and in the application of the law in some States, as well as in the actions and attitudes of institutions and individuals responsible for law enforcement. The Committee on a regular basis addressed those issues. They included practices such as racial profiling, the mistreatment of persons belonging to ethnic groups by the police, and the imposition of harsher sentences on those persons. Statistics demonstrated that certain groups such as ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples were over-represented among persons arrested or imprisoned, as well as in the total number of deaths in custody. Of particular concern was the lack of prompt action by the police, the prosecutors and the judiciary for investigating and punishing acts of racial discrimination, which often led to total or partial impunity for the perpetrators of such acts.

Mrs. Arbour said racial discrimination in the administration of justice would subvert the rule of law, undermine faith in the legal system, and result in victimizing of individuals and groups by the very institutions responsible for their protection. It should be acknowledged, denounced and eradicated. From her own experience, she knew how important it was to ensure that the judicial system played an adequate role in preventing racial discrimination and ensuring full protection and preparation for victims.
Article 5 of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination requested that States parties guarantee the right of everyone, without discrimination, to equal treatment before tribunals and all other organs administering justice, she said. The Committee was uniquely qualified to clarify governing principles and offer guidance to States on all measures necessary to ensure the elimination of racial discrimination in the administration of justice. A new general recommendation by the Committee on that issue would undoubtedly be timely and useful.

Ms. Arbour recalled that during the three years she spent as Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, she was confronted with some of the worst excesses of intolerance and injustice and the grossest abuses of the most basic human rights. One should never forget the horrendous massacres in Rwanda in 1994 and the massive killings in Srebrenica one year later, both driven by racial and ethnic intolerance and hatred. Those events reminded the international community, in all their brutality, that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance were not vanishing phenomenon, and that the need for vigilance was never exaggerated.

Within the framework of efforts to prevent genocide, the Secretary-General had launched last year a Plan of Action including the nomination of a Special Advisor to the Secretary-General, Mr. Juan Mendez, who would attend the Committee’s thematic discussion on 28 February and 1 March.

Ms. Arbour said one of her main goals as High Commissioner was to contribute to strengthening the rule of law at both the national and international levels. She firmly believed in the role of law as guidance through difficult societal challenges, the combat against racial discrimination being one of those challenges. Human rights law, which included as a corner stone the principles of equality and non-discrimination, was often said to face the obstacles of weak enforcement mechanisms. Through international instruments, however, human rights had turned from ideals into legal obligations. Their incorporation into domestic constitutional and legal systems had permitted individuals to assert and claim their rights.

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