COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION CONCLUDES ITS NINETY-THIRD SESSION

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this afternoon concluded its ninety-third session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Kuwait, Russian Federation, United Arab Emirates, Ecuador, Djibouti, Tajikistan, Canada and New Zealand, which were considered during the session.

The concluding observations and recommendations of the Committee will be available shortly on the webpage of the Committee.

Anastasia Crickley, Chairperson of the Committee, in her closing remarks, said that they had adopted concluding observations and recommendations with regard to eight States parties this session. Under the early warning measures and urgent procedures, they had adopted two decisions on the United States and on Nigeria. It was a long time since they had adopted two major decisions under this procedure in one session and it was a sign of how racial discrimination was becoming increasingly insidious in the world. Also during the session, the Committee had held a closed meeting with 26 or 27 States parties who were behind in their reporting and virtually all had indicated that they would submit their reports soon, so she believed that this had been a useful initiative.

Ms. Crickley thanked Gabriella Habtom, the secretary of the Committee, as this was her last official event as secretary, and acknowledged her very particular contribution to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination over the past eight years.

In addition to the consideration of the reports during the session, the Committee held public informal meetings with non-governmental organizations that briefed the Committee on the situation in the countries whose reports were considered. In closed meetings, the Committee considered communications received under article 14 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

The ninety-fourth session of the Committee will be held from 20 November to 8 December, during which it will review the reports of Algeria, Australia, Belarus, Jordan, Serbia and Slovakia on how they implement the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.



For use of the information media; not an official record

CERD17/027E