COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION DISCUSSES EARLY WARNING AND URGENT PROCEDURES
Press Release
RD/845
COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION DISCUSSES EARLY WARNING AND URGENT PROCEDURES
19960227 GENEVA, 26 February (UN Information Service) -- The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this afternoon added Guatemala and Liberia to the list of countries placed under its "early warning and urgent procedures" mechanism.The mechanism permits the Committee, established to monitor the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to take early warning measures aimed at preventing existing problems from escalating into conflicts, or to decide to initiate urgent procedures in response to problems requiring immediate attention in order to prevent or limit the scale or number of serious violations of the Convention. Currently, the list includes Israel, Rwanda, Burundi, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro).
Concerning Israel and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Committee decided to keep them on this list and to send them a reminder regarding information on racial discrimination in their territories which the Committee had previously requested. The Committee set 1 May as the deadline for receiving the information.
On Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Committee is expected to receive information tomorrow, in closed session, from the Secretariat on the application of the Dayton Accord, which some members considered to be in conflict with the Convention, particularly as it seemed to ratify the division of territory on the basis of ethnicity. The Secretariat would also provide information on the situation in Rwanda and Burundi.
The Committee removed Algeria and Mexico from the list, as it considered that the situation in those countries could be examined during the review of their periodic reports. A decision on the situation in the Russian Federation, a country previously on the list, would be made once the report of that country is examined later this session. The Committee also decided to postpone further action with respect to the situation in Papua New Guinea until the publication of the report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on that country.
- 2 - Press Release RD/845 27 February 1996
Also this afternoon, the Committee considered a letter from the Permanent Mission of Italy to the Committee against Torture, which states that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination had "ruled out the existence in Italy of cases of racial discrimination". Expert Committee members recalled that the Committee had never reached such a conclusion with regard to any country.
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