Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Chairman's Report on the 49th session

In March 1996 CERD decided that 13 State reports should be tabled for consideration at its 49th session, 5-25th August 1996. At the request of the State, CERD later agreed to the postponement of two reports while certain others were not submitted by the expected date. In the event, the Committee considered 10 periodic reports (most being combined reports, catching up on overdue submissions): Bolivia; Brazil, China, India, Republic of Korea, Malta, Mauritius, Namibia, Venezuela, Zaire. The Committee conducted 10 `second round' reviews of the implementation of the Convention in States whose periodic reports were overdue by 10 years or more. Under its early warning and urgent action procedures it considered the situation in 8 States: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Federal Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Israel, Liberia, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda and Burundi. It adopted resolutions on Bosnia, Burundi, Cyprus and Liberia, and a General Recommendation concerning Refugees. A decision was also taken under the provision for individual complaints.

It will be seen that CERD gets through a lot of business. Its new report to the General Assembly contains a chapter describing its working methods; this draws attention to the division of labour made possible by the appointment of country rapporteurs. While they can take the initiative in the examination of reports and the preparation of Concluding Observations, the established procedures protect the interests of other members and those of the Committee as a whole. The continuity in Committee membership may also be a contributory factor. Two of the current members are in their sixth term of office, and two in their fifth. The average member is in his or her third term.

The Committee has further discussed the position of members who are nationals of a reporting State. A particular problem was noted as arising when a member who had refrained from participating in the consideration of the report from a State of which he or she is a national wished to express dissent from some or all of the Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee.

The Committee's bureau held a meeting with the bureau of the Sub- Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities to formulate views on the Programme of Action within the Third Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination.

For its 50th session CERD has decided to table 14 periodic reports. A further 18 States are due for `first round' reviews (their periodic reports being overdue by five years or more). The Committee has reported to the General Assembly on its proposals to review implementation of the Convention in 8 States whose initial reports are overdue by five years or more. Further reports will be submitted in the coming months, some of them promised by the State in response to the review procedure. So the pressures on the Committee's timetable will increase. Some members believe that, as a result of these pressures, the Committee has not pursued a sufficient dialogue with all State delegations, but, on the other hand, the Committee does not wish any backlog of unconsidered reports to accumulate. It should also be noted that, for the first time, a State has submitted comments on the Committee's Concluding Observations for inclusion in the Committee's report to the General Assembly.

Since State delegations sometimes request an interval to prepare their replies to the questions of Committee members, the timetable for the 49th session divided many meetings into two halves, so that the delegation could return better prepared the following day. The Committee has concluded that the disadvantages of such an arrangement outweigh any advantages to the delegation. This means that the Committee may not in future be able to accommodate all delegations requesting an adjournment to prepare replies. They may be invited to submit further replies in writing, perhaps in their next periodic report since the Convention requires that these be submitted every two years.

This account of CERD's 49th session [was] drafted for the information of those who chair the other five treaty bodies on the assumption that they will be more interested in the organizational aspect of the Committee's work than in the content of Concluding Observations on particular States. . . .