WORKING GROUP OF EXPERTS ON PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT TO DISCUSS RACIAL PROFILING AT SESSION IN GENEVA

26 January 2007


Human rights and legal experts will gather in Geneva next week to examine the implications of racial profiling in such areas as counterterrorism, the administration of justice and police work.

Panelists in the discussion will include Robert L. Wilkins, a lead plaintiff who won a landmark settlement in a racial profiling case in the United States, French magistrate Régis de Gouttes, Chairperson of the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; Clare Roberts, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of People of African Descent and against Racism at the Inter American Commission on Human Rights; Doudou Diène, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism; Martin Scheinin, Special Rapporteur on the promotion of human rights while countering terrorism, will also be present to discuss the issue of racial profiling, and Leila Zerrougui, Chairperson of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

The experts are coming together at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on the occasion of the sixth session of the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent,which will run from 29 January to 2 February 2007.

Agenda

The agenda for the session includes the following topics: the definition of racial profiling and the international framework prohibiting racial profiling; the problem of racial profiling in the functioning of the administration of justice; regional work and experiences on the issue of racial profiling; the human impact of racial profiling; the meaning of racial profiling in the context of the increase of racism; de jure discrimination and the institutional dimension of the discrimination ascribed to the police and other law enforcement services; terror, crime and suspect communities: evidence of and solutions to ethnic profiling by police; profiling in countering terrorism; the problem of impunity and accountability relating to acts of racial profiling; measures to combat racial profiling, including preventive positives measures; data collection on ethnic profiling; and the benefits from overall representativeness in the police and criminal justice systems.
Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent

The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent was established in the wake of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban in 2001 to “study the problems of racial discrimination faced by people of African descent living in the African Diaspora and make proposals for the elimination of racial discrimination against people of African descent".
The current members of the Working Group, appointed on the basis of equitable geographic representation, are: Peter Lesa Kasanda (Zambia), Chairperson; Joe Frans (Sweden); George Nicolas Jabbour (Syrian Arab Republic), and Irina Zlatescu (Romania)
A member representing the Latin America and Caribbean region remains to be appointed.

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For use of information media; not an official record