Ad Hoc Committee on Complementary Standards
Cross Regional Group (Monitoring procedures of the CERD and of other mechanisms)
Thank you, Mr. Chairperson,
I am making this intervention on behalf of the cross-regional group on Complementary Standards, namely, the Delegations of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland and Uruguay.
Mr. Chair, this Group has been emphasizing that the most effective way to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance is to make the most of the already existing legal framework and to strengthen States’ implementation levels.
As ICERD is the most relevant instrument for our work in the Ad Hoc Committee, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was tasked with a study on possible measures to strengthen implementation through optional recommendations or update of its monitoring procedures. The CERD provided us with various ways to strengthen their work and effectively utilize ICERD. Our Group believes that the Ad Hoc Committee will benefit from further discussions on these recommendations as increased effectiveness of this existing framework could serve as a bridge to fill the gaps. In this regard, our Group is of the view that strengthening the monitoring mechanism should be pursued instead of jumping into the hasty action of introducing a new legal instrument. If there is a room for improvement in the existing instrument, let us work on that first.
Our Group in its contribution suggested that this Committee address the implementation and procedural gaps with regard to ICERD by considering the concrete proposals put forward by the CERD, namely a follow-up procedure to recommendations, an inquiry procedure and country visits in the framework of these procedures. Therefore, the Group would like to suggest that the Ad Hoc Committee invite members of the CERD to exchange views on these recommendations. States could carefully study these recommendations and present their views on the best ways to deal with these recommendations.
I thank you, Mr. Chair.
