COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION
OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
Forty-eighth session
26 February - 15 March 1996

Decision 1(48) on Bosnia and Herzegovina
adopted at the Committee's 1153rd meeting on 13 March 1996

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination recalls its expressions of serious concern with the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a State party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and in particular its Decision 2(47) adopted on 17 August 1995, and will continue to review the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina under its early warning and urgent procedures.

The Committee notes the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina drawn up in Dayton and signed in Paris on 24 November 1995 and is anxious to contribute to the implementation of these peace accords from the perspective of the principles and objectives of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Accordingly, the Committee

1. Entrusts its Chairman, in close communication with the members of the Bureau, to consult, in close coordination with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, other United Nations bodies, notably the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Former Yugoslavia, as well as competent regional bodies with a view to making recommendations for follow-up action by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination;

2. Decides to institute a process of consultation with the State party concerned on how the good offices of the Committee can be drawn upon in the future, in consultation with all interested parties in order to promote understanding between races and ethnic groups and to build a society free from all forms of racial or ethnic segregation or discrimination;

3. Invites the State party concerned to cooperate with the Committee in organising, as soon as practically possible, a meeting between a delegation of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the newly established Commission on Human Rights for Bosnia and Herzegovina so as to place the Committee's experience at the disposal of the Commission.