Ad Hoc Committee on Complementary Standards
Item 3 – Racial, ethnic and religious profiling and measures to combat terrorism
Mr. Chairperson,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Cross-Regional Group on Complementary Standards, namely, the delegations of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland and Uruguay.
1. On item 3 “racial, ethnic and religious profiling and measures to combat terrorism”, our group wishes to express its unequivocal condemnation of terrorism. This group recognizes the right of every state must take necessary measures to combat terrorism in their policies, legislation and practices, in conformity with international law.
2. In the past decade various counter-terrorism measures have been adopted worldwide. At the same time, there are occurrences of violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the context of the fight against terrorism. Combating terrorism has therefore entailed challenges to the protection, promotion and enjoyment of human rights - civil, cultural, economic, political and social-. Concerns have also been voiced by UN special rapporteurs and independent experts as well as civil society over these challenges. Our group therefore strongly emphasize that any measures taken to counter terrorism complies with international human rights laws.
3. In the context of combating terrorism, our group considers that racial, ethnic and religious profiling should be addressed as a set of separate phenomena. The automatic linkage among these three aspects might be conducive to wrong conclusions contrary to international human rights law. Our group believes that existing normative framework covers this issue and instead of setting up new legislations and norms, effective law enforcement of existing legislation is needed. Furthermore, improvements in police officers and other relevant state agents training programs, as well as in human rights education curricula should be carried out.
4. Finally, our group wishes to remind that the 2006 United Nations Global Counter- Terrorism Strategy adopted by the General Assembly lists human rights as one of its four pillars and states that, the promotion and protection of human rights for all and the rule of law is essential to all components of the Strategy, recognizing that effective counter- terrorism measures and the protection of human rights are not conflicting goals, but complementary and mutually reinforcing. This is also the spirit of HRC Resolution 10/15.
Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.
