Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Opens One Hundred and Seventeenth Session in Geneva, Elects Gün Kut as Chair
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this morning opened its one hundred and seventeenth session in Geneva, during which it will review anti-discrimination efforts by Burkina Faso, Cuba, Cyprus, Serbia, Slovenia and Uzbekistan, and examine individual communications under article 14 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. After hearing remarks from a representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, the Committee elected Gün Kut (Türkiye) as Chair and four Bureau members, and adopted the session’s agenda.
Wan Hea Lee, Chief of Section One, Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, opened the one hundred and seventeenth session of the Committee. Ms. Lee welcomed the three new members of the Committee elected on 25 June 2025, Shaikha Al-Misnad (Qatar), Saúl Vicente Vázquez (Mexico), and Carla Ivette Pousa Caride (Panama), and congratulated the members who had been re-elected to the Committee for another term: Bakari Sidiki Diaby (Côte d’Ivoire), Michal Balcerzak (Poland), Gün Kut (Türkiye), Régine Esseneme (Cameroon), Mazalo Tebie (Togo), and Chinsung Chung (Republic of Korea). Their skills and experience would strengthen the Committee’s important work of monitoring the implementation of the Convention, which remained the key international legal reference for State responsibilities with respect to the elimination of racial discrimination.
The Committee was meeting at a moment of particular importance, Ms. Lee said. She quoted the United Nations Secretary-General’s warning at the opening of the Human Rights Council that “human rights are under a full-scale attack around the world. The rule of law is being outmuscled by the rule of force. And this assault is happening in plain sight – and often led by those who hold the greatest power.”
Ms. Lee recalled that at the Commemorative Meeting of the General Assembly to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Secretary-General said that racial discrimination was a violation of human rights and human dignity that fed many of the problems the world faced, including economic, social and political inequalities, discriminatory policies and practices, and outright conflicts. The High Commissioner for Human Rights stated on the same occasion that “race remains the most common ground for discrimination globally, causing real pain to millions of people.” The work of this Committee was therefore profoundly important, Ms. Lee said.
Ms. Lee recalled that this year marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, a key global framework to combatting racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance which complemented the Convention. Twenty-five years on, the distance between the commitments made in Durban and the lived realities of those most affected remained too wide, and too painful, for far too many people. Racial discrimination was a living, breathing injustice present in courtrooms and classrooms, in hiring decisions and hospital wards, increasingly fuelled by algorithms that sorted human beings and by political speeches that scapegoated them. The State party reviews conducted by the Committee provided an invaluable opportunity to insist that commitments made under the Convention were not mere aspirations but legal obligations that needed to be implemented.
The Committee was also engaged in the elaboration of draft general recommendation 40 on reparations, a landmark undertaking that resonated powerfully in this twenty-fifth anniversary year, Ms. Lee said. On 25 March, at a commemorative event organised to mark the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the need to step up efforts for reparatory justice was highlighted. Also in March, the General Assembly passed a landmark resolution to recognise the enslavement of Africans during the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity”, a move advocates hoped would pave the way for healing and justice.
Ms. Lee said the United Nations system had intensified its focus on indigenous peoples’ rights, climate justice, and participation in global policymaking. The General Assembly’s 2025 resolution on the rights of indigenous peoples set in motion preparations for major upcoming events, including a high-level panel in 2027 commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and preliminary consultations for a possible Second World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in 2028. The resolution additionally urged States to protect the rights of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and uphold the principle of no contact where applicable.
Ms. Lee said that States’ progress needed to be acknowledged. There were States investing in equality bodies, implementing national action plans, reforming discriminatory legislation, and launching national consultations with affected communities. These efforts were the building blocks of the world the Convention envisioned. Many such steps were taken through constructive engagement with this Committee. Many States continued to demonstrate genuine commitment by submitting their reports and by following the Committee’s recommendations, taking tangible steps to strengthen their legal frameworks and institutional responses to racial discrimination.
In a world where the foundations of the international human rights system were being tested as rarely before, the Committee had been hard at work to meet the challenges, Ms. Lee noted. On 24 December 2025, it issued a press release calling on all States parties to take concrete action following its conclusions and recommendations issued in its first inter-State complaint under article 11 of the Convention, a case brought by the State of Palestine against Israel. While underscoring the specific responsibilities of Israel in this case, the Committee stressed that all States parties had obligations under the Convention to ensure that their policies, cooperation and assistance related to the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory did not enable or support discriminatory policies or practices.
She also reported that, acting under its early warning and urgent action procedure, the Committee adopted Decision One (2026) on the United States, expressing grave concern over the discriminatory impacts of immigration enforcement policies implemented since January 2025, and called upon the United States to bring its legislative and policy frameworks into full conformity with the Convention.
The Committee’s work had never been more essential, yet the treaty bodies continued to face unprecedented constraints, Ms. Lee said. In 2025, more than 30 per cent of meeting time was lost due to the liquidity crisis, which, together with reduction in staff support, caused a serious drop in the work that could be undertaken. There was also a continuing decrease in the submission of State party reports, which had resulted in reductions of the budgeted resources for treaty bodies.
This year, the resource situation was expected to remain extremely challenging, faced with additional cuts to both post and non-post resources, Ms. Lee said. As of today, there was still no confirmation of the Committee’s second session this year. Continuing reductions in meeting time would translate into less work that could be undertaken and, most regrettably, less impact for right-holders. This created difficulties for Committee members, States parties, civil society, national human rights institutions, and all partners who relied on the Committee’s work.
The High Commissioner had warned that, if the trend of dwindling resources continued, the treaty body system risked reaching a breaking point. In addition to highlighting the need to close the serious resource gaps, he called on Member States, treaty bodies, civil society organizations and others concerned to pursue innovative solutions to strengthen the treaty body system, including in the context of the UN80 process, in order to make it more sustainable and impactful. Meanwhile, the Office was doing its utmost to support the Committee and other treaty bodies.
Ms. Lee said a heavy programme of work was before the Committee over the next three weeks, including six major State party reviews; the consideration of six State party follow-up reports (those of Albania, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Qatar and Turkmenistan); and the preparation of one list of issues prior to reporting on Tonga. The Committee would also continue its work on its draft general recommendation on reparations and consider cases under its early warning and urgent action and individual complaints procedures.
In concluding remarks, Ms. Lee wished the Committee a fruitful and productive session.
The Committee then elected members of its Bureau, including a new Chair, three Vice-Chairs and a Rapporteur. The Chair was elected from the Western European and other States Group, following the Committee’s standard practice of regional rotation. The Western European and other States Group proposed that the position of Chair be held initially for one year by Gün Kut (Türkiye) and for the subsequent year by Stamatia Stavrinaki (Greece). However, the Africa Group rejected this proposal. The Committee subsequently decided to elect Gün Kut as Chair for a two-year period. Guan Jian (China), Ibrahima Guisse (Senegal) and Michal Balcerzak (Poland) were elected as Vice-Chairs, and Carla Ivette Pousa Caride (Panama) was elected as Rapporteur.
Newly elected Chair Mr. Kut said that the Committee and all treaty bodies were going through a period of tremendous difficulty. However, the Committee worked on the principle of facing challenges and addressing them in an incremental fashion. This was not a perfect system, but it worked.
Mr. Kut said the Convention called for the eradication of racial discrimination, which was not a realistic demand. The Committee would probably never be able to fully eradicate racial discrimination, but it would constantly combat it and help the States parties, as they had called on it to do, to combat racial discrimination issues in their countries.
During the current session, Mr. Kut said, the Committee would hold interactive dialogues with States parties and hold meetings with other stakeholders, including non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions. It would also hold a meeting with States parties on 30 April.
In closing, Mr. Kut thanked Committee members for trusting him in the post of Chair and said that he would serve the Committee as best he could. He also expressed thanks to the former Chair and members of the Bureau, who had faithfully served the Committee. Committee Experts, in turn, took the floor to express their congratulations to Mr. Kut and pledged their support to him.
The programme of work and other documents related to the Committee’s one hundred and seventeenth session can be found here. Summaries of the public meetings of the Committee can be found here, while webcasts of the public meetings can be found here.
The Committee will next meet in public on Tuesday, 14 April at 3 p.m. to consider the combined sixth to ninth periodic reports of Serbia (CERD/C/SRB/6-9).
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