Address of High Commissioner Louise Arbour to the opening meeting of the sixty-fifth session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

2 August 2004

Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the Committee,

I am very pleased to welcome you to Geneva, and to open the 65th session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. As it is the first time I have the pleasure of addressing you, allow me to start by saying how much I look forward to working with you and also to having the opportunity to exchange views on matters of common interest and concern.

I shall say a few words in a moment on your programme of work for this session and on developments that have taken place since your previous session and have direct implications for the activities of your Committee. Before coming to this point, let me begin by re-affirming what my predecessors have consistently underlined, namely, that the treaty body system is a central pillar of the United Nations human rights edifice. The successful implementation of the main human rights treaties, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, is not of abstract value. It is crucial to the realization of peoples' universal aspiration for peace, justice, development, equality and social progress. Moreover, in my view, the rigorous implementation of treaties is essential for the preservation and promotion of the rule of law to which I am fully committed.

Not only is compliance with treaty obligations the best human rights safeguard, but lack of compliance generates cynicism and general disrespect for the law. Lack of compliance visits an additional indignity upon those whose rights have been violated: the indignity of a broken promise, a betrayal of trust.

Discrimination certainly represents one of the main obstacles to compliance with rule of law principles. During the four years which I spent as Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, I was confronted with some of the worst excesses of intolerance and injustice and the grossest abuses of the most basic human rights. Whether it be in the context of mass genocide in Rwanda or of the ruthless ethnic cleansing that took place in the former Yugoslavia, my colleagues and I had to deal with the impact on thousands of women and men, young and old, stripped of their rights and their dignity, of abuses that had their origin in patterns of discrimination. We have much work to do to ensure that the root-causes of conflicts are addressed through combating racial discrimination and promoting the principle of equality.

I am aware that you have been dealing over the years with the most acute cases of racial discrimination through various ways, including early warning measures and urgent action procedures. Within the framework of efforts to prevent racial discrimination, you have showed your readiness to take early warning measures so as to prevent existing problems from escalating into conflicts. On several occasions, you have also initiated urgent action procedures aimed at preventing, or at least limiting the scale or number of serious violations of the Convention. I very much welcome the possibility of taking such actions when confronted with particularly grave situations.

It is important to recall, however, that no country can claim to be free of racism and racial discrimination. Even when it does not degenerate into slaughter, discrimination impoverishes of all us by depriving us of the full contribution of each and every member of society and by making us complicit in the claim that some are more worthy of dignity and respect than others. Your work is crucial, therefore, not only in relation to countries confronted with particularly grave situations, but also for all other States that must remain vigilant and continue combating racism, including in its most insidious forms, in their respective societies. Through the dialogue in which you engage with States parties when considering their periodic reports, you assist them in this task and your recommendations provide them with useful tools.

I have no doubt that the principle of equality and non-discrimination is the cornerstone of effective implementation of fundamental human right standards. These standards should be protective for all human beings.
In this context, I have noted with great interest the thematic discussion which your Committee held at its last session on non-citizens and racial discrimination, and your work on the elaboration of a new general recommendation on this issue, which I very much hope you will be able to finalise and make public during this session. Your work in this area is particularly important at a time when xenophobia against non-nationals, particularly migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers, constitutes a most disturbing form of contemporary racism.

I am also aware of the statement that you adopted in March 2002 in which you underline the obligation of States “to ensure that measures taken in the struggle against terrorism do not discriminate in purpose or effect on grounds of race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin”. In several concluding observations adopted over the past two years, you have recommended to States parties, while acknowledging their national security concerns, to balance those concerns with the protection of human rights and with their international legal obligations. Your work in this area, and that of the other treaty bodies, provides a crucial supplement to the work of the Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee. I hope that the recent joint discussion on “counter terrorism measures and their impact on human rights and the rule of law”between the treaty body chairpersons and the special procedures mandate holders, in which your Chairman took part, will lead to further and improved coordination between the two sets of mechanisms in this field.

Allow me to say a few words on a subject with which I will continue to familiarize myself in the coming weeks and months, namely the reform of treaty body procedures and, in particular, of the reporting procedures. The Third Inter-Committee meeting, in which your Chairman and two other members of your Committee took part on 21 and 22 June, examined the first draft of guidelines for a common core document. Participants have welcomed these draft guidelines and recommended that the Chairpersons forward them, together with the report of the meeting, to their respective committees for discussion on a priority basis. The meeting also designated Mr. Kamel Filali, member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, to act as rapporteur on this matter. He will work with my colleagues in preparation for next year's Inter-Committee meeting, and, I hope, will make further proposals. I encourage you to study the draft guidelines which you will find in your files and to discuss their substance in an open and constructive approach. I am told that Mr Kamel Filali has accepted the invitation of your Chairman to come and attend your discussion of the draft guidelines on 19 August. In the meantime, I am pleased to inform you that Timor Leste has indicated that it intends to follow the common core document approach, supplemented by treaty-specific reports. My Office is committed to providing the required technical assistance for this purpose.

I have been briefed about your programme of work for this session, and I very much welcome the opportunity that you will have this week to meet with the International Law Commission to discuss reservations to human rights treaties. This is an issue which I find particularly important and I wish you a successful and fruitful discussion with the members of the Commission on 4 August.

I note that in the context of your discussions on the Committee’s working methods, you decided at the last session to amend your rules of procedure and to appoint a rapporteur on the follow-up to your concluding observations. This is an endeavour that I fully support. My Office, and in particular the Treaty and Follow-up Unit, will assist you and the rapporteur in whichever way we can.

Finally, I will follow with particular interest the development of the case law of human rights treaty bodies, and in particular your jurisprudence under article 14 of the Convention. I am aware that only 45 out of 169 states parties to the Convention have made the declaration under article 14 of the Convention, and I very much hope that this number will increase in the near future, thus allowing the Committee to develop its case law on the interpretation of the Convention. In addition, I see a need to make the recommendations and jurisprudence of the United Nations human rights treaty bodies more accessible and more visible. As relevant and noteworthy as your recommendations and decisions undoubtedly are, it is a regrettable fact that they remain largely unknown not only to the general public at the national level, but also to the vast majority of members of the legal profession, including many human rights lawyers. This situation must change in order to foster a consistent evolution and application of human rights standards worldwide.

In conclusion, let me reiterate my full support for your work and wish you a productive and successful session.