STATES PARTIES TO CONVENTION AGAINST RACIAL DISCRIMINATION ELECT NINE MEMBERS TO MONITORING COMMITTEE

States Parties to Convention

Against Racial Discrimination

Twentieth Session

29^th Meeting (AM)

STATES PARTIES TO CONVENTION AGAINST RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

ELECT NINE MEMBERS TO MONITORING COMMITTEE

The Twentieth Meeting of the States Parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination today elected nine members to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination during one round of secret balloting.

The nine elected members, chosen from a list of 16 candidates, are:  Mr. Alexei S. Avtonomov (Russian Federation); Mr. Ralph F. Boyd, Jr. (United States); Mr. José Francisco Cali Tzay (Guatemala); Ms. Fatimata-Binta Victoire Dah (Burkina Faso); Ms. Patricia Nozipho January-Bardill (South Africa); Mr. Raghavan Vasudevan Pillai (India); Mr. Tang Chengyuan (China); Mr. Luis Valencia Rodriguez (Ecuador); and Mr. Mario Jorge Yutzis (Argentina).  (Biographies of the electees are provided in document CERD/SP/66.)

The nine members whose terms of office will expire on 19 January 2006 are:  Mr. Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr (Egypt); Mr. Nourredine Amir (Algeria); Mr. Régis de Gouttes (France); Mr. Kurt Herndl (Austria); Mr. Morten Kjaerum (Denmark); Mr. José A. Lindgren Alves (Brazil); Mr. Agha Shahi (Pakistan); Mr. Linos Alexandre Sicilianos (Greece); and Mr. Patrick Thornberry (United Kingdom).

The 1966 International convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination defines “racial discrimination” and commits States Parties to take measures to abolish it in both law and practice.  The convention established a monitoring body, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), to consider reports from States Parties and –- if the State concerned has accepted the Convention’s optional procedure –- to consider petitions from individuals alleging a violation of the Convention.  The Committee consists of 18 members, elected for a period of four years.  The nine currently elected members will serve from 20 January 2004 until 19 January 2008.

At the outset of the meeting, the Secretary-General’s representative, Bacre Waly Ndiaye, who spoke on behalf of the Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that although the number of States Parties to the Convention since 2002 had increased from 161 to 169, there was still “some way to go toward the goal of universal ratification”. 

He informed the Meeting that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination during its 2002 and 2003 sessions had considered 42 reports and had adopted conclusions and recommendations aimed at effective implementation of the Convention at the national level.  In 2002, the Committee had adopted two General Recommendations, one of them concerning the follow-up to the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in 2001 in Durban, South Africa.  The Committee had also continued to consider communications from individuals or groups alleging a violation of their rights under the Convention.  At present, only 44 States parties had made declarations under article 14 permitting communications to be considered by the Committee. 

During the past two years, he said, the Committee had been devoting considerable attention to the review of its working methods and had discussed them with States representatives during the first-ever meeting with States parties on 19 August 2003.  Regarding financial matters, he said that for the amendment to article 8 of the Convention providing for regular budget financing of the Committee’s activities, acceptance must be received from two thirds of the States parties.  To date, however, only 37 States parties had ratified the amendment.

In other business, the meeting elected Janusz Stanczyk (Poland), nominated by the representative of Luxembourg, as Chairperson.  Beatrice Londono (Colombia), nominated by the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, and Stefan Barriga (Liechtenstein), nominated by the Group of Western European and Other States, were elected as Vice-Chairpersons.

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