Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination concludes eighty-second session

ROUNDUP

1 March 2013

Adopts Concluding Observations on Reports of Algeria, Dominican Republic, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritius, New Zealand, Russian Federation and Slovakia

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination today concluded its eighty-second session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Algeria, Dominican Republic, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritius, New Zealand, Russian Federation and Slovakia on how these countries are implementing the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

The concluding observations and recommendations will be available at the end of the day on Monday, 4 March at the following link.

In addition to its consideration of country reports, the Committee also held a discussion with the Board of Trustees for the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations. During the course of the session, the Committee met Adama Dieng, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, and Morten Kjaerum, former member of the Committee and currently Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. The Committee also held public informal meetings with non-governmental organizations from the countries reviewed during the session.

At the closing meeting, Anastasia Crickley, Rapporteur of the Committee, presented the report of the session, which contained the concluding observations of the seven countries reviewed, as well as a review of the implementation of the Convention by the States parties and a list of the actions taken by the Committee during the session. She noted that the follow-up of the Durban Review Conference was also discussed during the session, as well as the drafting and adoption of a General Recommendation on Discrimination against People of African Descent. The report also contained an overview of the discussions on working methods. Ms. Crickley said that additional meeting time would be needed to address the backlog of individual communications.

At the end of the meeting, the Chairperson asked the members of the Committee for their views on the issue of backlog. Experts said that the Committee should inform the General Assembly that it was able to catch up and reduce the backlog. As a result, the Committee was now considering reports almost as they came in. But the number of reports considered at each session might increase in the future. So there would be a backlog again if no additional resources were provided. The experts agreed that this issue should be mentioned in the report to the General Assembly.

The next session of the Committee will be held from 12 to 30 August 2013 during which it will review the situation in Belarus, Burkina Faso, Chad, Chile, Cyprus, Jamaica, Sweden and Venezuela.

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For use of the information media; not an official record