Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

112th session

Summary record ( p artial )* of the 3077th meeting**

Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva, on Friday, 26 April 2024, at 3 p.m.

Chair:Mr. Balcerzak

Contents

Closure of the session

The discussion covered in the summary record began at 4.40 p.m.

Closure of the session

The Chair said that the Committee’s 112th session had been attended by all but one of its members. At the public opening, a statement had been delivered by Ms. Wan-Hea Lee, Chief of the Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Section of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Ms. Lee had recalled that the world faced many challenges that were of direct concern to the Committee; had drawn attention to the pledges made by Governments, organizations and other actors on the seventy‑fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including pledges to combat racial discrimination; and had stressed the importance of the implementation by States of their international obligations and commitments.

During the session, the Committee had reviewed and had adopted concluding observations on the reports of five States parties – Albania, Mexico, Qatar, the Republic of Moldova and San Marino. The Committee appreciated the information contributed by all delegations, by non-governmental organizations and by the national human rights institutions of Mexico, Qatar and the Republic of Moldova. The Committee had also considered follow‑up reports submitted by France and Georgia.

On 12 April 2024, acting under its early warning and urgent action procedure, the Committee had adopted a decision on Sudan. The decision expressed the Committee’s grave concern at the increase in ethnic violence since the outbreak of hostilities between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces and its alarm at reports of ethnically motivated attacks committed against certain communities, principally by the Rapid Support Forces and allied militia. Sadly, since the adoption of the decision, reports had emerged of escalating violence in and around the city of El Fasher, North Darfur, which was mostly inhabited by the African Zaghawa ethnic community. Reports indicated that both parties had launched indiscriminate attacks using explosive weapons with wide-area effects in residential districts, and that dozens of people had been killed. Civilians were trapped in the city – the only one in Darfur still in the hands of the Sudanese Armed Forces – and were afraid of being killed should they attempt to flee. The Secretary-General of the United Nations had warned that an attack on the city would be devastating for civilians.

In its decision, the Committee urged Sudan to address and prevent further escalation of ethnic violence, incitement to racial hatred and racist hate speech and called upon all parties to the conflict to immediately cease hostilities and put a stop to violations and abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law, notably violent acts targeting people on the basis of their ethnic origin. The decision had been published on the Committee’s web page.

The Committee had also considered an individual communication, No. 74/2021, which had been submitted against Switzerland. The authors of the communication, who were facing deportation from Switzerland to North Macedonia, claimed that they had been subjected to violence in North Macedonia on account of their Roma origin and that returning them would violate their rights under articles 5 (b) and 5 (e) (iv), read in conjunction with article 2 (1) (a), of the Convention. The Committee had decided that the authors had failed to establish that they would be exposed to a real, personal and foreseeable risk of being subjected to severe violence or discrimination in the event of their return and, consequently, had concluded that the facts before it did not reveal a violation of the Convention.

The Committee had continued to work on its draft general recommendation on racial discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to health. Prior to the session, a large number of written submissions had been received and regional consultations had been organized. The Committee would finalize the second draft with a view to its adoption at the 113th session.

The Committee had also discussed the work undertaken since its previous session towards the development, with the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, of a joint general recommendation on public policies for addressing and eradicating xenophobia and its impact on the rights of migrants, their families and other non-citizens affected by racial discrimination. As many stakeholders had expressed an interest in contributing to the process, the call for submissions had been extended until the end of April 2024. The focal points of the two Committees, Mr. Guissé and Mr. Ceriani Cernadas, had engaged extensively with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Organization for Migration, United Nations agencies, universities, civil society organizations and national human rights institutions to raise awareness of the process. Regional consultations in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe were due to be held in late 2024.

The Committee had continued to review proposed amendments to its rules of procedure and would further pursue that work at its subsequent session.

At its 113th session, scheduled to take place from 5 to 23 August 2024, the Committee would consider the reports of Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Pakistan, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of).

After the customary exchange of courtesies, he declared the 112th session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination closed.

The meeting rose at 5 p.m.