A/52/18
A/52/18
United Nations
Report of the
Committee on the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination
General Assembly
Official Records • Fifty-second Session
Supplement No. 18 (A/52/18)
A/52/18
Report of the
Committee on the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination
General Assembly
Official Records • Fifty-second Session
Supplement No. 18 (A/52/18)
United Nations • New York, 1997
NOTE
Symbols of United Nations documents are composed of capital letters combined with figures. Mention of such a symbol indicates a reference to a United Nations document.
ISSN 0252-1261
[Original: English]
[26 September 1997]
CONTENTS
Chapter Paragraphs Page
Letter of transmittal .................................................. vii
I. ORGANIZATIONAL AND RELATED MATTERS ................... 1 - 13 1
A. States parties to the International Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination .................................... 1 - 2 1
B. Sessions and agenda ............................... 3 - 4 1
C. Membership and attendance ......................... 5 - 7 1
D. Officers of the Committee on the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination ............................. 8 3
E. Cooperation with the International Labour
Organization and the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization .............. 9 - 10 3
F. Other matters ..................................... 11 - 12 3
G. Adoption of the report ............................ 13 3
II. PREVENTION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, INCLUDING EARLY
WARNING AND URGENT PROCEDURES ......................... 14 - 19 4
Decisions adopted by the Committee at its fifty-first
session .......................................................... 5
Decision 1 (51) on Israel ........................................ 5
Decision 2 (51) on Bosnia and Herzegovina ........................ 6
Decision 3 (51) on the Democratic Republic of the Congo .......... 7
Decision 4 (51) on Papua New Guinea .............................. 8
III. CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS, COMMENTS AND INFORMATION
SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER ARTICLE 9 OF THE
CONVENTION ........................................... 20 - 637 9
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . 21 - 51 9
Afghanistan .......................................... 52 - 56 13
Bahamas .............................................. 57 - 59 14
Dominican Republic ................................... 60 - 62 14
CONTENTS (continued)
Chapter Paragraphs Page
Guatemala ............................................ 63 - 99 14
Belarus .............................................. 100 - 125 18
Luxembourg ........................................... 126 - 145 22
Jordan ............................................... 146 - 148 24
Nepal ................................................ 149 - 151 24
Germany .............................................. 152 - 175 25
Pakistan ............................................. 176 - 209 28
Belgium .............................................. 210 - 234 31
Cameroon ............................................. 235 - 238 35
Iceland .............................................. 239 - 254 35
Iraq ................................................. 255 - 274 37
Bulgaria ............................................. 275 - 295 39
Mexico ............................................... 296 - 327 42
Panama ............................................... 328 - 357 46
Swaziland ............................................ 358 - 369 49
Rwanda ............................................... 370 - 373 50
Seychelles ........................................... 374 - 376 51
Mongolia ............................................. 377 - 379 51
Algeria .............................................. 380 - 405 52
Ethiopia ............................................. 406 - 408 55
Philippines .......................................... 409 - 438 55
Denmark .............................................. 439 - 461 59
Poland ............................................... 462 - 483 62
Guyana ............................................... 484 - 486 64
Suriname ............................................. 487 - 489 65
Sweden ............................................... 490 - 511 65
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ............ 512 - 529 67
CONTENTS (continued)
Chapter Paragraphs Page
Argentina ............................................ 530 - 561 69
Burundi .............................................. 562 - 593 73
Norway ............................................... 594 - 618 77
Burkina Faso ......................................... 619 - 637 80
IV. CONSIDERATION OF COMMUNICATIONS UNDER ARTICLE 14 OF
THE CONVENTION ....................................... 638 - 644 82
V. CONSIDERATION OF COPIES OF PETITIONS, COPIES OF
REPORTS AND OTHER INFORMATION RELATING TO TRUST AND
NON-SELF-GOVERNING TERRITORIES AND TO ALL OTHER
TERRITORIES TO WHICH GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION
1514 (XV) APPLIES, IN CONFORMITY WITH ARTICLE 15 OF
THE CONVENTION ....................................... 645 - 648 84
VI. ACTION BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT ITS FIFTY-FIRST
SESSION .............................................. 649 - 661 85
VII. SUBMISSION OF REPORTS BY STATES PARTIES UNDER
ARTICLE 9 OF THE CONVENTION .......................... 662 - 663 88
A. Reports received by the Committee ................ 662 88
B. Reports not yet received by the Committee ........ 663 90
VIII. THIRD DECADE TO COMBAT RACISM AND RACIAL
DISCRIMINATION ....................................... 664 - 669 100
IX. OVERVIEW OF THE METHODS OF WORK OF THE COMMITTEE .....670 - 671 102
Annexes
I. Status of the Convention ......................................... 103
A. States parties to the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (148), as at
22 August 1997 ............................................... 103
B. States parties that have made the declaration under
article 14, paragraph 1, of the Convention (24), as at
22 August 1997 ............................................... 107
C. States parties that have accepted the amendments to the
Convention adopted at the Fourteenth Meeting of States
Parties (23) as at 22 August 1997 ........................... 107
II. Agendas of the fiftieth and fifty-first sessions ................. 109
A. Fiftieth session ............................................. 109
CONTENTS (continued)
Page
B. Fifty-first session .......................................... 109
III. Decision of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination under article 14 of the International Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination ............ 111
IV. Documents received by the Committee at its fiftieth and fifty-
first sessions in conformity with article 15 of the Convention ... 121
V. General Recommendation, on the rights of indigenous peoples,
adopted by the Committee at its 1235th meeting, on
18 August 1997 ................................................... 122
VI. Country rapporteurs for reports considered by the Committee at
its fiftieth and fifty-first sessions ............................ 124
VII. List of documents issued for the fiftieth and fifty-first sessions
of the Committee ................................................. 128
VIII. Comments of the Government of the Philippines on the concluding
observations adopted by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination on the eleventh to fourteenth periodic reports of
the Philippines presented during the fifty-first session of the
Committee ........................................................ 130
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
26 August 1997
Sir,
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was, in 1994, among the first bodies within the United Nations system to express concern about the dangerous situation that was developing within the Great Lakes region of Africa. As we wrote to your predecessor in August of that year, it would have been better had preventive action been taken before open hostilities broke out. Since then, atrocious human rights abuses within the region have multiplied. Improved methods for preventing such disasters must be identified.
The Committee's priorities remain: the examination of reports under article 9 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; prevention of racial discrimination, including early warning and urgent procedures; action on communications under article 14 of the Convention; and the implementation of the Convention in States whose reports are seriously overdue. We report on these in chapters II, III and IV. We have also this year adopted an important General Recommendation to States parties about reporting on the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples; this is to be found in annex V to the present report. Indigenous people are often unable to attract attention to abuses of their human rights and they deserve the assistance of the international community.
Encouraged by paragraph 4 of General Assembly resolution 51/80, the Committee, at its fifty-first session, started the process of reviewing implementation of the Convention in States whose initial reports are overdue by five years or more. Many of these States parties have diplomatic representation in New York but not in Geneva. The absence of representatives in Geneva makes it difficult for the Committee to communicate with them and for them to participate in the process of monitoring the implementation of human rights treaties. The Committee therefore requests you, and the States parties to the Convention, to make it possible for the Committee to meet occasionally in New York in order to schedule the consideration of reports from States in this position. The Committee also requests you to see whether in other ways you can assist these States to fulfil their reporting obligations.
On behalf of the Committee, I draw your attention to chapter VI, which contains the results of the Committee's review of its contribution to the more effective implementation of international instruments on human rights. The Committee has no backlog of unconsidered State reports. It continues to advise States parties of their legal obligations to prevent discrimination on grounds of race and ethnic or national origin. It adapts its working methods to the changing situation within the United Nations and in the wider world.
(Signed) Michael Banton
Chairman
Committee on the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination
His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan
Secretary-General of the
United Nations
New York
I. ORGANIZATIONAL AND RELATED MATTERS
A. States parties to the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
1. As at 22 August 1997, the closing date of the fifty-first session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, there were 148 States parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which was adopted by the General Assembly in resolution 2106 A (XX) of 21 December 1965 and opened for signature and ratification in New York on 7 March 1966. The Convention entered into force on 4 January 1969 in accordance with the provisions of its article 19.
2. By the closing date of the fifty-first session, 24 of the 148 States parties to the Convention had made the declaration envisaged in article 14, paragraph 1, of the Convention. Article 14 of the Convention entered into force on 3 December 1982, following the deposit with the Secretary-General of the tenth declaration recognizing the competence of the Committee to receive and consider communications from individuals or groups of individuals who claim to be victims of a violation by the State party concerned of any of the rights set forth in the Convention. The States parties to the Convention and those that have made the declaration under article 14 are listed in annex I to the present report, as are the States parties (23) that have accepted the amendments to the Convention adopted at the Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties, as at 22 August 1997.
B. Sessions and agenda
3. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination held two regular sessions in 1997. The fiftieth (1185th-1214th meetings) and fifty-first (1215th-1244th meetings) sessions were held at the United Nations Office at Geneva from 3 to 21 March and from 4 to 22 August 1997, respectively.
4. The agendas of the fiftieth and fifty-first sessions, as adopted by the Committee, are reproduced in annex II.
C. Membership and attendance
5. In accordance with the provisions of article 8 of the Convention, the Sixteenth Meeting of the States Parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination was held at United Nations Headquarters on 16 January 19961 and elected nine members of the Committee from among the candidates nominated to replace those whose term of office was due to expire on 19 January 1996.
6. The members of the Committee for 1996-1998, including those elected or re-elected on 16 January 1996, are the following:
Term expires
Name of member Country of nationality on 19 January
Mr. Mamoud ABOUL-NASR Egypt 1998
Mr. Hamzat AHMADU Nigeria 1998
Mr. Michael Parker BANTON United Kingdom of Great Britain 1998
and Northern Ireland
Mr. Theodoor van BOVEN** Netherlands 2000
Mr. Andrew CHIGOVERA Zimbabwe 1998
Mr. Ion DIACONU** Romania 2000
Mr. Eduardo FERRERO COSTA** Peru 2000
Mr. Ivan GARVALOV** Bulgaria 2000
Mr. Régis de GOUTTES France 1998
Mr. Carlos LECHUGA HEVIA Cuba 1998
Mr. Yuri A. RECHETOV** Russian Federation 2000
Mrs. Shanti SADIQ ALI** India 2000
Mr. Agha SHAHI Pakistan 1998
Mr. Michael E. SHERIFIS Cyprus 1998
Mr. Luis VALENCIA RODRIQUEZ** Ecuador 2000
Mr. Rüdiger WOLFRUM Germany 1998