20 Years After: 38th Session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
| Author | Nathalie Bernard-Maugiron |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934419000800405 |
| Date | 01 December 1990 |
| Published date | 01 December 1990 |
| Subject Matter | Part A: Article |
Bemard-Maugiron
I 38th
Session
of the CERD Committee
20 YEARS AFTER: 38TH SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE
ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
Nathalie
Bernard-Maugiron:
Twenty years after its entry into force,' the International Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) numbers
129 States parties, making it the most widely ratified human rights
convention.
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, com-
posed of 18 experts elected for 4 years by the States parties, is set up to
monitor implementation of the Convention. The Committee is autono-
mous and is not a subsidiary body of the United Nations. It is set up by
an international convention, its members are elected from among their
nationals by the States parties to the Convention and experts' expenses
are borne by States parties alone. The Committee is, however, linked to
the UN, using its secretariat and its conference rooms and reporting
every year to the General Assembly.
Having held its first session in 1970, the Committee celebrates this
year its twentieth birthday.
It
expressed last year the wish to hold its
spring session in New York, where the first session was held. But due to
financial reasons, its spring session was cancelled,"
The supervisory mechanisms available to this Committee are very
similar to those put at the disposal of other treaty bodies: examination of
State reports, individual complaints and complaints of one State against
another.'
Nathalie Bernard-Maugiron works as Programme Officer for the International Service
for Human Rights, in particular on treaty bodies.
1 4 January 1969.
2 To celebrate the date in spite of this, the Committee decided to update a 1977 study
called "TIle progress made towards achievement of the objectives of the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination" which willnow
be called "The First 20 years: progress report of the Committee on the elimination of
racial discrimination". This document should be available in March 1991.
3 Article 11: "If a State Party considers that another State Party is not giving effect to
the provisions of this Convention, it may bring the matter to the attention of the
Committee." Unlike the Covenant on Civiland PoliticalRights, the Convention on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination does not make this clause optional. States are
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