Sri Lanka to face review by UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination

GENEVA (10 August 2016) – Sri Lanka’s record on tackling racial discrimination will face scrutiny by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on 15 and 16 August. Sri Lanka is one of the 177 States that have ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and so is reviewed regularly by the Committee of 18 international independent experts. 

Among the possible issues for discussion between CERD members and a delegation from the Sri Lankan Government are:

• Ongoing process of reconciliation and work to ensure non-recurrence of civil war;
• Protection of ethno-religious minorities and their places of worship from discriminatory acts and attacks;
• Measures to protect ethno-religious and ethnic minority human rights defenders, members of civil society, and journalists from arbitrary arrest, detention, enforced disappearance, attacks and stigmatization;
• Steps taken to address caste-based discrimination;
• Measure to protect the Vedda people from discrimination and stigmatisation;
• Resettlement of internally displaced persons and refugees, particularly Tamil and Muslim ethnic minorities.

The review will take place on 15 August from 15:00 to 18:00 (18:30 to 21:30 in Sri Lanka) and on 16 August from 10:00 – 13:00 (13:30 to 16:30) at Palais Wilson in Geneva, and will be webcast at http://webtv.un.org/

The Committee will also hear from other UN entities and NGOs. More information here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1073&Lang=en

The Committee will hold a news conference at the Palais des Nations in Geneva at 13:30 on 26 August to discuss its findings on Sri Lanka and the other countries being reviewed – Greece, the UK, Paraguay, Lebanon, Ukraine, South Africa and Pakistan. The findings, officially termed concluding observations, will be published here:  http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1073&Lang=en

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Liz Throssell - +41 22 917 9466 / ethrossell@ohchr.org

Media accreditation for the Palais des Nations:   http://unog.ch/80256EDD006B9C2E/(httpPages)/70991F6887C73B2280256EE700379C58?OpenDocument

Background
Members of CERD are independent human rights experts drawn from around the world, who serve in their personal capacity and not as representatives of States parties. The Committee’s concluding observations are an independent assessment of States’ compliance with their human rights obligations under the treaty. More information on the Committee: http://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/cerd/pages/cerdindex.aspx

The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 21 December 1965. More information on the Convention’s 50th anniversary here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CERD/50/Pages/Icerd50.aspx

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