HOLY SEE

General Comments - Government Responses

CERD A/9618

Annex V

Texts of comments of States Parties to general recommendation IV, adopted by the Committee at its eighth session, received up to the end of the tenth session in accordance with article 9, paragraph 2, of the Convention a/

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HOLY SEE

5 November 1973

With regard to recommendation IV, which invites States Parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination to include in their periodic reports information on the demographic composition of their population, the Vatican Secretariat of State considers that this recommendation does not apply to the Holy See, since, in view of its special character, the Holy See possesses a territory solely for the purpose of guaranteeing the free exercise of its religious mission, and its population is in fact limited to a certain number of officials.

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            a/ For the text of general recommendation IV, see Official Records of the General Assembly, Twenty-eighth Session, Supplement No. 18 (A/9018), chap. X, sect. B, decision 1 (VIII).