A/52/18 United Nations Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination General Assembly Official Records · Fifty-second Session Supplement No. 18 (A/52/18) A/52/18 Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination General Assembly Official Records · Fifty-second Session Supplement No. 18 (A/52/18) United Nations · New York, 1997 NOTE Symbols of United Nations documents are composed of capital letters combined with figures. Mention of such a symbol indicates a reference to a United Nations document. ISSN 0252-1261 [Original: English] [26 September 1997] CONTENTS Chapter Paragraphs Page Letter of transmittal .................................................. vii I. ORGANIZATIONAL AND RELATED MATTERS ................... 1 - 13 1 A. States parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination .................................... 1 - 2 1 B. Sessions and agenda ............................... 3 - 4 1 C. Membership and attendance ......................... 5 - 7 1 D. Officers of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination ............................. 8 3 E. Cooperation with the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization .............. 9 - 10 3 F. Other matters ..................................... 11 - 12 3 G. Adoption of the report ............................ 13 3 II. PREVENTION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, INCLUDING EARLY WARNING AND URGENT PROCEDURES ......................... 14 - 19 4 Decisions adopted by the Committee at its fifty-first session .......................................................... 5 Decision 1 (51) on Israel ........................................ 5 Decision 2 (51) on Bosnia and Herzegovina ........................ 6 Decision 3 (51) on the Democratic Republic of the Congo .......... 7 Decision 4 (51) on Papua New Guinea .............................. 8 III. CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS, COMMENTS AND INFORMATION SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER ARTICLE 9 OF THE CONVENTION ........................................... 20 - 637 9 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . 21 - 51 9 Afghanistan .......................................... 52 - 56 13 Bahamas .............................................. 57 - 59 14 Dominican Republic ................................... 60 - 62 14 -iii-iii CONTENTS (continued) Chapter Paragraphs Page Guatemala ............................................ 63 - 99 14 Belarus .............................................. 100 - 125 18 Luxembourg ........................................... 126 - 145 22 Jordan ............................................... 146 - 148 24 Nepal ................................................ 149 - 151 24 Germany .............................................. 152 - 175 25 Pakistan ............................................. 176 - 209 28 Belgium .............................................. 210 - 234 31 Cameroon ............................................. 235 - 238 35 Iceland .............................................. 239 - 254 35 Iraq ................................................. 255 - 274 37 Bulgaria ............................................. 275 - 295 39 Mexico ............................................... 296 - 327 42 Panama ............................................... 328 - 357 46 Swaziland ............................................ 358 - 369 49 Rwanda ............................................... 370 - 373 50 Seychelles ........................................... 374 - 376 51 Mongolia ............................................. 377 - 379 51 Algeria .............................................. 380 - 405 52 Ethiopia ............................................. 406 - 408 55 Philippines .......................................... 409 - 438 55 Denmark .............................................. 439 - 461 59 Poland ............................................... 462 - 483 62 Guyana ............................................... 484 - 486 64 Suriname ............................................. 487 - 489 65 Sweden ............................................... 490 - 511 65 The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ............ 512 - 529 67 -iv-iv CONTENTS (continued) Chapter Paragraphs Page Argentina ............................................ 530 - 561 69 Burundi .............................................. 562 - 593 73 Norway ............................................... 594 - 618 77 Burkina Faso ......................................... 619 - 637 80 IV. CONSIDERATION OF COMMUNICATIONS UNDER ARTICLE 14 OF THE CONVENTION ....................................... 638 - 644 82 V. CONSIDERATION OF COPIES OF PETITIONS, COPIES OF REPORTS AND OTHER INFORMATION RELATING TO TRUST AND NON-SELF-GOVERNING TERRITORIES AND TO ALL OTHER TERRITORIES TO WHICH GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION 1514 (XV) APPLIES, IN CONFORMITY WITH ARTICLE 15 OF THE CONVENTION ....................................... 645 - 648 84 VI. ACTION BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT ITS FIFTY-FIRST SESSION .............................................. 649 - 661 85 VII. SUBMISSION OF REPORTS BY STATES PARTIES UNDER ARTICLE 9 OF THE CONVENTION .......................... 662 - 663 88 A. Reports received by the Committee ................ 662 88 B. Reports not yet received by the Committee ........ 663 90 VIII. THIRD DECADE TO COMBAT RACISM AND RACIAL DISCRIMINATION ....................................... 664 - 669 100 IX. OVERVIEW OF THE METHODS OF WORK OF THE COMMITTEE ..... 670 - 671 102 Annexes I. Status of the Convention ......................................... 103 A. States parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (148), as at 22 August 1997 ............................................... 103 B. States parties that have made the declaration under article 14, paragraph 1, of the Convention (24), as at 22 August 1997 ............................................... 107 C. States parties that have accepted the amendments to the Convention adopted at the Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties (23) as at 22 August 1997 ........................... 107 II. Agendas of the fiftieth and fifty-first sessions ................. 109 A. Fiftieth session ............................................. 109 -v-v CONTENTS (continued) Page B. Fifty-first session .......................................... 109 III. Decision of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination under article 14 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination ............ 111 IV. Documents received by the Committee at its fiftieth and fifty- first sessions in conformity with article 15 of the Convention ... 121 V. General Recommendation, on the rights of indigenous peoples, adopted by the Committee at its 1235th meeting, on 18 August 1997 ................................................... 122 VI. Country rapporteurs for reports considered by the Committee at its fiftieth and fifty-first sessions ............................ 124 VII. List of documents issued for the fiftieth and fifty-first sessions of the Committee ................................................. 128 VIII. Comments of the Government of the Philippines on the concluding observations adopted by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the eleventh to fourteenth periodic reports of the Philippines presented during the fifty-first session of the Committee ........................................................ 130 -vi-vi LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 26 August 1997 Sir, The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was, in 1994, among the first bodies within the United Nations system to express concern about the dangerous situation that was developing within the Great Lakes region of Africa. As we wrote to your predecessor in August of that year, it would have been better had preventive action been taken before open hostilities broke out. Since then, atrocious human rights abuses within the region have multiplied. Improved methods for preventing such disasters must be identified. The Committee’s priorities remain: the examination of reports under article 9 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; prevention of racial discrimination, including early warning and urgent procedures; action on communications under article 14 of the Convention; and the implementation of the Convention in States whose reports are seriously overdue. We report on these in chapters II, III and IV. We have also this year adopted an important General Recommendation to States parties about reporting on the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples; this is to be found in annex V to the present report. Indigenous people are often unable to attract attention to abuses of their human rights and they deserve the assistance of the international community. Encouraged by paragraph 4 of General Assembly resolution 51/80, the Committee, at its fifty-first session, started the process of reviewing implementation of the Convention in States whose initial reports are overdue by five years or more. Many of these States parties have diplomatic representation in New York but not in Geneva. The absence of representatives in Geneva makes it difficult for the Committee to communicate with them and for them to participate in the process of monitoring the implementation of human rights treaties. The Committee therefore requests you, and the States parties