Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Eightieth session
Summary record of the 2165th meeting
Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva, on Friday, 9 March 2012, at 3 p.m.
Chairperson:Mr. Avtonomov
Contents
Report of the Committee to the General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session
Organizational and other matters
Closure of the session
The meeting was called to order at 3.20 p.m.
Report of the Committee to the General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session (CERD/C/80/R.1 and Add.1 and 2; CERD/C/80/R.2 and Add . 1 - 3; and documents without a symbol , distributed in the meeting room in English only)
The Chairperson invited Ms . Crickley (Rapporteur) to present the draft annual report of the Committee.
Ms. Crickley (Rapporteur) reported that the covering letter would be prepared once the draft annual report had been finalized and would contain an explanation of changes in the Committee’s procedure for the consideration of reports.
Chapter I: Organizational and related matters (CERD/C/80/R.1/Add.1)
Ms. Crickley said that she would amend paragraph 6 to include the names of the members of the Committee who had served as Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and Rapporteur during the period covered by the annual report, namely Mr. Avtonomov, Mr. Amir, Mr. Calí Tzay, Mr. Lahiri and herself respectively. She would also amend paragraph 14 to state that the Committee had met with the Independent Expert in the field of cultural rights, Ms. Shaheed.
Mr. Diaconu proposed noting in a new paragraph the attendance of a representative of the Council of Europe at certain meetings of the Committee and specifying which meetings she had attended.
Chapter I, as amended, was adopted subject to the necessary verifications.
Chapter II: Prevention of racial discrimination, including early warning measures and urgent action procedures (document without a symbol, distributed in the meeting room in English only)
Ms. Crickley said that an additional fourth paragraph would be added to chapter II to reflect the work undertaken by the Committee’s two working groups of experts on activities concerned with early warning measures and urgent action procedures.
Chapter II, as amended, was adopted.
Chapter III: Consideration of reports, comments and information submitted by States parties under article 9 of the Convention ( document not distributed in the meeting room)
Ms. Crickley said that the reference to Senegal should be deleted from the chapter as the State party, who should have presented its report at the eightieth session, had not in the end sent a delegation to Geneva.
Chapter III, as amended, was adopted.
Chapter IV: Follow-up to the consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 9 of the Convention ( document without a symbol, distributed in the meeting room in English only )
Chapter IV was adopted.
Chapter V: Review of the implementation of the Convention in States parties the reports of which are seriously overdue (CERD/C/80/R.1/Add.2)
Mr. Thornberry proposed removing the reference in paragraph 2 to Thailand from the list of States parties whose reports were overdue by at least five years as the Committee had received that country’s report and intended to consider it at its eighty-first session.
Ms. Crickley, agreeing, added that Mauritius should also be removed from the list in paragraph 1 as the State party now belonged to the category of countries whose reports were overdue by at least 10 years.
Chapter V, as amended, was adopted.
Chapter VI: Consideration of communications under article 14 of the Convention ( document without a symbol, distributed in the meeting room in English only )
Chapter VI was adopted.
Chapter VII: Follow-up to individual communications ( document without a symbol, distributed in the meeting room in English only )
Chapter VII was adopted.
Chapter VIII: Action taken by the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session ( document without a symbol , distributed in the meeting room in English only )
Chapter VIII was adopted.
Chapter IX: Follow-up to the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance and the Durban Review Conference ( document without a symbol , distributed in the meeting room in English only )
Chapter IX was adopted.
Chapter X: Thematic discussions and general recommendations ( document without a symbol , distributed in the meeting room in English only )
Chapter X was adopted.
Chapter XI: Working methods of the Committee ( document without a symbol , distributed in the meeting room in English only )
Ms. Dah noted that the Committee had succeeded in clearing its backlog of reports and was currently up-to-date thanks to the additional weeks of meetings accorded it by the General Assembly at the request of the Committee. She therefore deemed it inappropriate to imply in paragraph 6 that the Committee might repeat that request. The Committee should simply thank the General Assembly, which did not mean that the Committee could not ask for additional meeting time some time in the future, should it become apparent that it could not consider all the reports before it in good time.
In support of Ms. Dah’s statement, Ms. Crickleyproposed deleting the second sentence of paragraph 6.
Chapter XI was adopted with minor editorial changes.
In light of Mr. de Gouttes ’ s proposal, Mr. Thornberry proposed inserting a new chapter, or annex, giving a brief account of Committee members’ activities between sessions as part of their mandates.
It was so agreed.
Annex I: Status of the Convention (CERD/C/80/R.2)
Ms. Crickleysaid that the accession of Djibouti to the Convention in September 2011 had brought the current number of States parties to 175. Section A of annex I should, therefore, be amended accordingly.
Ms. Dah said that it was worthwhile verifying whether Djibouti had made the declaration provided for in article 14 of the Convention and, if appropriate, to amend section B.
Annex I, as amended, was adopted subject to the necessary verifications and changes.
Annex II: Agenda of the eightieth session (CERD/C/80/R.2/Add.1)
Annex II was adopted.
Annex III: Opinions of the Committee under article 14 of the Convention at the eightieth session ( document not distributed)
Annex III was adopted.
Annex IV: Follow-up information provided in relation to cases in which the Committee adopted recommendations (document without a symbol , distributed in the meeting room in English only)
Annex IV was adopted.
Annex V: Country Rapporteurs for reports of States parties considered by the Committee and for States parties considered under the review procedure at its eightieth session (CERD/C/80/R.2/Add.2)
Annex V was adopted.
Annex VI: List of documents issued for the eightieth session of the Committee (CERD/80/R.2/Add.3)
Annex VI was adopted.
Ms. Crickley said that the report should also contain an annex VII to include State parties’ comments on the Committee’s concluding observations. If received in good time, the comments would appear in the annual report.
The draft annual report of the Committee to the General Assembly was adopted as amended, subject to the necessary verifications and changes.
Organizational and other matters
Ms. Habtom (Committee Secretary) said that the eighty-first session of the Committee would take place from 6 to 31 August 2012. The list of States parties whose reports would be considered at the session and the Country Rapporteurs were as follows: Austria (Mr. Lahiri); Belize (without a report, Ms. Dah); Republic of Korea (Ms. Crickley); Ecuador (Mr. Calí Tzay); Fiji (Mr. Saidou); Finland (Mr. Vázquez); Liechtenstein (Mr. Amir); Dominican Republic (Mr. Murillo Martínez); Senegal (Mr. Ewomsan); Tajikistan (Mr. Diaconu) and Thailand (Mr. Huang Yong’an).
Ms. Dah said she hoped that the Chairperson would succeed in convincing the Government of Belize to send a delegation so that the implementation of the Convention in the State party would not be considered under the review procedure, but rather in the presence of the State party and on the basis of a periodic report that it should be encouraged to submit.
The meeting was suspended at 4.25 p.m. and resumed at 5.20 p.m.
Closure of the session
After an exchange of courtesies, the Chairperson declared closed the eightieth session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The meeting rose at 5.25 p.m.