Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination opens its ninety second session in Geneva

Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

24 April 2017

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this morning opened its ninety-second session during which it will review anti-discrimination efforts by Finland, the Republic of Moldova, Armenia, Kenya, Cyprus and Bulgaria.  The Committee heard an address by Simon Walker, Chief of Section, Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and adopted the session’s agenda and programme of work.

In his opening statement, Mr. Walker noted that this session of the Committee came at a time of significant turmoil.  Unprecedented numbers of migrants and refugees were on the move, often subjected to racist and derogatory hate speech and violence from the communities they had turned to for safety and security; more egregiously, this violence was spurred on by politicians and leaders.  The rights and dignities of all persons must be upheld in those difficult times; leaders had a particular responsibility in this regard, and the Committee had a pivotal role to play. 

The Declaration for Refugees and Migrants adopted by the General Assembly on 19 September 2016 expressed the political will of world leaders to protect the rights of refugees and migrants, and to save lives and share responsibility for large movements on a global scale.  By adopting the New York Declaration, Member States had made bold commitments, including to start negotiations leading to the adoption in 2018 of a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration, and a global compact on refugees, to achieve a more equitable sharing of burden and responsibility for hosting and supporting the world’s refugees.  Former High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour had been nominated Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International Migration, and she would have a strong hand in moving this agenda forward. 

During the session, the Committee would hold an informal meeting with States parties entitled “ICERD in Today’s World” which would focus on key challenges that States parties experienced in addressing racial discrimination in their countries; Mr. Walker noted that this meeting would therefore provide an opportunity to advance the agenda of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. 

Mr. Walker acknowledged the pioneering efforts of the Committee in using social media – Twitter and Facebook - to connect with stakeholders outside of Geneva and thus ensure that its work travelled beyond the walls of this meeting room and was shared and influenced by a global audience, including youth and civil society members.  The United Nations webcast would continue to make the work of treaty bodies more visible in 2018, as the experience of the use of the webcast by a diversity of stakeholders was very positive: States, civil society, the United Nations and the media used them for awareness-raising, training and capacity building.

Anastasia Crickley, Committee Chairperson, in her opening remarks, concurred with the analysis of the challenges offered by Mr. Walker and expressed concern about scaremongering with regard to migrants and refugees, the ongoing legacy of slavery, and the increasing manifestation of different forms of racial oppression against certain groups, including the toxic discourse which continued.  The work of the Committee was to examine each country on its own merits, avoid generalizations, and support countries in the implementation of the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Committee Experts commended the Committee for adopting the policy of paperless meetings and the positive impact of such a move on the environment.  They inquired about the languages in which the Committee meetings would be webcast and insisted on the obligation of the Committee to ensure that its work was accessible, including for people in the parts of the world that did not have access to the Internet.

The Committee then proceeded to adopt the agenda and the programme of work of the ninety-second session. 

More information on this session can be found here.

The Committee will next meet in public on Tuesday, 25 April at 10 a.m. for an informal consultation with non-governmental organizations from Finland, the Republic of Moldova and Armenia, whose reports will be reviewed this week.

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For use of the information media; not an official record

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