Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Closes One Hundred and Eighteenth Session after Adopting Concluding Observations on Finland, Honduras, India and Kuwait, and General Recommendation on Reparatory Justice for Colonialism, Trafficking in Enslaved Africans and Racialised Chattel Slavery
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination today closed its one hundred and eighteenth session, during which it reviewed the reports of Finland, Honduras, India and Kuwait. The Committee’s concluding observations for the country reviews conducted during the session are available on the session’s webpage.
In the closing plenary, the Committee also adopted its general recommendation 40 on reparatory justice for the harms and continuing consequences of colonialism, the trafficking in enslaved Africans across the Atlantic and other routes, and racialised chattel slavery.
In a statement marking the adoption, Pela Boker-Wilson, Committee Expert and Rapporteur for the general recommendation, said the recommendation reflected the Committee’s determination to address one of the greatest and most enduring manifestations of racial injustice in human history. It presented a broad range of measures aimed at restoring dignity, addressing structural inequalities, promoting truth-telling, preserving historical memory, advancing education and preventing recurrence. She expressed hope that it would serve as a meaningful tool for strengthening global efforts against racial discrimination in all its forms.
Verene Albertha Shepherd, Committee Rapporteur ad interim, then presented the highlights of the Committee’s session. The session, she said, was formally opened by Mahamane Cisse Gouro, Chief of the Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, who situated the Committee's work in a period of accelerating global crises, serious human rights challenges and growing threats to the international human rights system. Mr. Cissé Gouro addressed the financial and resource constraints affecting the treaty body system, noting the reduction of meeting time and the late confirmation or cancellation of sessions. He reaffirmed the commitment of the Office of the High Commissioner to supporting the treaty bodies and thanked the Committee for its dedication.
During the session, Ms. Shepherd reported, the Committee examined the reports of Finland, Honduras, India and Kuwait. It also adopted a list of issues prior to reporting for Eritrea, and reviewed follow-up reports from Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ecuador, Kenya, Monaco, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.
Under the early warning and urgent action procedure, Ms. Shepherd said, the Committee adopted two decisions and one statement. The first decision was related to the civilian harm caused by the Israeli miliary operations in Lebanon, which she said had intensified since 2 March 2026. The second decision concerned South Africa and the reported recent wave of xenophobia, racial discrimination, racist hate speech and racist hate crimes since early 2026 against migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, and those perceived as such. The Committee's statement concerned longstanding and persistent reported violations of the rights of the Maasai indigenous peoples in Tanzania, including forced evictions and relocations, racially motivated excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests and detention, intimidation and harassment.
In addition, the Committee adopted seven letters addressed to Mauritius, the Russian Federation, the United States, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe and Brazil. Six of these letters concerned the situation of indigenous peoples in the respective States parties and the remaining letter concerned the situation of a minority ethnic group in the State party.
Under its individual communications procedure, Ms. Shepherd reported, the Committee decided on communication 68/2019, finding a violation of the Convention concerning the right to equal treatment before tribunals and all other organs administering justice.
In closing, Ms. Shepherd said that the session had again demonstrated the breadth and importance of the Committee's mandate. Despite the serious resource constraints and the wider challenges facing the international human rights system, the Committee had continued to monitor the implementation of the Convention, engage constructively with States parties and stakeholders, develop normative guidance, address urgent situations and strengthen protection against racial discrimination. The Committee remained committed to advancing the fundamental right of every person to freedom from racial discrimination, she said.
In his concluding remarks, Gün Kut, Committee Chairperson, said the session had been unusually short, and the Committee’s next session had been cancelled. This was due to the liquidity crisis that the United Nations was facing. The result of this crisis could be a lack of protection from the Committee for potential victims of racial discrimination. The Committee strongly encouraged States parties to overcome this financial and liquidity crisis so that human rights could be properly protected.
Nevertheless, this had been an extremely productive session, he said. He thanked the Committee Experts and all persons who had contributed to the session for their dedication and invaluable work.
Summaries of the public meetings of the Committee can be found here, while webcasts of the meetings can be found here. Other documents related to the session can be found here.
Due to the current financial situation of the United Nations, the dates of the Committee’s next session are not yet confirmed. All information, including the proposed programme of work, will be made available on the Committee’s webpage when confirmed.
Statements on the Adoption of General Recommendation 40
PELA BOKER-WILSON, Committee Expert and Rapporteur for the general recommendation, said that today marked the culmination of an important and historic undertaking by the Committee. The general recommendation reflected the Committee’s determination to address one of the greatest and most enduring manifestations of racial injustice in human history.
In preparing the general recommendation, the Committee benefitted from the expertise of Committee Experts, scholars, practitioners, State representatives, national human rights institutions, members of civil society, people of African descent and affected communities, whose experiences and perspectives helped shape the text. In the drafting process, Committee members engaged deeply with complex legal and policy questions, striving to ensure that the text was principled, balanced and firmly anchored in the Convention.
The general recommendation situated reparatory justice within the broader obligation of States parties to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and ensure substantive equality. It presented a broad range of measures aimed at restoring dignity, addressing structural inequalities, promoting truth-telling, preserving historical memory, advancing education and preventing recurrence.
In adopting the recommendation, the Committee had reached an important milestone in its efforts to advance the objectives of the Convention and to address one of the most enduring sources of racial injustice in the world. Ms. Boker-Wilson said that, as a descendant of Africans who endured the injustice and indignity of enslavement, she was deeply humbled and honoured to have accompanied this process to its conclusion. This moment served as a reminder that the legacies of transatlantic chattel slavery remained woven into the lived experiences, identities and aspirations of millions of people of African descent around the world.
Ms. Boker-Wilson expressed thanks to all members of the Committee for ensuring that the final text of the recommendation was principled, balanced and firmly grounded in the Convention. She also extended thanks to staff members of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and to former Rapporteur Gay McDougall for their work on the recommendation.
The adoption of the general recommendation could not be timelier. Around the world, the legacies of chattel enslavement continued to obstruct the realisation of equality and non-discrimination today. At the same time, States, civil society organizations and descendants of affected communities were increasingly engaging in discussions concerning historical accountability, truth-telling, memorialisation and reparations.
The general recommendation sought to guide future action. It affirmed the importance of truth, justice, dignity, participation, accountability and non-discrimination, and recognised that meaningful reparatory measures needed to address both historical harms and their continuing manifestations. It placed the experiences and voices of people of African descent at the centre of the conversation.
Today was a celebration of the Committee’s contribution to an evolving dialogue on justice and equality. The Committee affirmed the dignity of those whose suffering was denied, minimised or forgotten and acknowledged the resilience of generations who endured, resisted and survived. It also affirmed its commitment to a future in which racial equality was not merely an aspiration but a lived reality.
The general recommendation was the beginning of a new chapter that called for dialogue, implementation and action. Ms. Boker-Wilson expressed hope that it would serve as a meaningful tool for advancing justice, confronting the enduring consequences of historical wrongs, and strengthening global efforts against racial discrimination in all its forms.
Committee Chair Gün Kut, several Committee Experts and a representative of Liberia then took the floor to welcome the adoption of the general recommendation and thank Ms. Boker-Wilson, former Rapporteur for the recommendation Gay McDougall, and all those who had contributed to the recommendation for their efforts.
Statements on the Closing of the Session
VERENE ALBERTHA SHEPHERD, Committee Rapporteur ad interim, presented the highlights of the session. She said it was formally opened by Mahamane Cisse Gouro, Chief of the Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, who situated the Committee's work in a period of accelerating global crises, serious human rights challenges and growing threats to the international human rights system. He paid tribute to the Committee's contribution to advancing the rights of all people without discrimination and highlighted several important anniversaries in 2026, including the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, and drew attention to the High Commissioner's Global Alliance for Human Rights and to recent United Nations work addressing racial discrimination.
Ms. Shepherd recalled that Mr. Cissé-Gouro addressed the financial and resource constraints affecting the treaty body system, noting the reduction of meeting time and the late confirmation or cancellation of sessions, as well as the resulting difficulties for Committee experts, States parties, civil society, national human rights institutions and other partners. He reaffirmed the commitment of the Office of the High Commissioner to support the treaty bodies and thanked the Committee for its dedication in this particularly difficult context.
During the session, Ms. Shepherd reported, the Committee examined the reports of Finland, Honduras, India and Kuwait. The Committee thanked all the high-level delegations for the fruitful and interactive dialogues and acknowledged the valuable contributions of the national human rights institutions, as well as civil society organizations and human rights defenders, whose submissions and briefings provided essential information for the reviews. Their commitment to the Committee’s mandate was vital to its work to eliminate racial discrimination.
During the session, the Committee also adopted a list of issues prior to reporting for Eritrea, and reviewed follow-up reports from Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ecuador, Kenya, Monaco, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. Ms. Shepherd thanked these States parties for their reports and invited them to give due consideration to the Committee’s recommendations and include the steps taken to implement them in their next periodic reports. She also expressed thanks to civil society stakeholders who engaged in the follow-up process.
Under the early warning and urgent action procedure, Ms. Shepherd said, the Committee adopted two decisions and one statement. The first decision was related to the civilian harm caused by the Israeli miliary operations in Lebanon, which she said had intensified since 2 March 2026, and in particular continued Israeli airstrikes, shelling and use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas that had caused immense civilian casualties and mass displacement. The second decision concerned South Africa and the reported recent wave of xenophobia, racial discrimination, racist hate speech and racist hate crimes, including harassment, intimidation, looting and organised violent attacks since early 2026 against migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, and those perceived as such.
The Committee's statement concerned longstanding and persistent reported violations of the rights of the Maasai Indigenous Peoples in Tanzania, including forced evictions and relocations, restrictions on access to ancestral lands, territories and natural resources, racially motivated excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests and detention, intimidation and harassment.
In addition, the Committee adopted seven letters addressed to Mauritius, the Russian Federation, the United States, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe and Brazil. Six of these letters concerned the situation of indigenous peoples in the respective States parties and the remaining letter concerned the situation of a minority ethnic group in the State party.
Under its individual communications procedure, Ms. Shepherd reported, the Committee decided on communication 68/2019, finding a violation of the Convention concerning the right to equal treatment before tribunals and all other organs administering justice.
In closing, Ms. Shepherd said that the session had again demonstrated the breadth and importance of the Committee's mandate. Despite the serious resource constraints and the wider challenges facing the international human rights system, the Committee continued to monitor the implementation of the Convention, engage constructively with States parties and stakeholders, develop normative guidance, address urgent situations and strengthen protection against racial discrimination.
Racial discrimination continued to affect people and communities in every region and could be embedded in institutions, laws, policies and daily life. The Committee's work was therefore not only relevant; it was essential. The Committee remained committed to advancing the fundamental right of every person to freedom from racial discrimination, Ms. Shepherd concluded.
GÜN KUT, Committee Chairperson, in his closing remarks, said the session had been unusually short, and the Committee’s next session had been cancelled. This created a serious obstacle to the Committee’s obligation to monitor States parties under the Convention. This was due to the liquidity crisis that the United Nations was facing. The result of this crisis could be a lack of protection from the Committee for potential victims of racial discrimination. This result would be a failure on the part of States parties to live up to their obligations under the Convention, which they had signed and ratified. The Committee strongly encouraged States parties to overcome this financial and liquidity crisis so that human rights could be properly protected.
Mr. Kut said it was unusual for the Committee to be meeting at the Palais des Nations this session, as it had normally met at the Palais Wilson. It would be meeting at the Palais des Nations from now on due to the financial crisis. Nevertheless, this had been an extremely productive session, he said. He thanked the Committee Experts and all persons who had contributed to the session for their dedication and invaluable work.
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CERD26.015E