International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

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International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
Short title: UN Convention on Racial Discrimination
Title (engl.): International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
Abbreviation: ICERD
Membership:
  • Recognize committees under Article 14
  • Do not recognize committees under Article 14
  • only drawn, not ratified
  • not drawn
    		•
    Date: Dec 21, 1965
    Come into effect: Jan. 4, 1969
    Reference: PDF ( Memento of September 13, 2001 in the Internet Archive )
    Reference (German): LR-No 0.104.1 in: LILEX
    BGBl. 1969 II p. 961
    Contract type: Multinational
    Legal matter: Human rights
    Signing:
    Ratification : 177 (2015)

    Germany: Declaration 2001
    Austria: Ratification 1972
    Switzerland: Ratification 1994
    Please note the note on the applicable contract version .

    The International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination ( UN Racial Discrimination Convention for short ; international abbreviation ICERD ) is one of the seven human rights treaties of the United Nations and is directed against all racial discrimination based on race , skin color , origin , national and ethnic origin.

    This international law treaty was passed by the UN General Assembly on December 21, 1965 and came into force as the first human rights treaty of the United Nations, on January 4, 1969 , seven years before the social and civil pacts, which are fundamental to the UN's human rights system . In 2019 , 180 states ratified the convention .

    Subject matter of the contract and obligations arising from the agreement

    The subject of the contract is not only discrimination based on "race", but also on the basis of other characteristics: skin color, descent, national and ethnic origin. The criteria language, religion, political and other beliefs, or birth such as B. the European Convention on Human Rights . Discrimination on the basis of sex is the subject of the Convention on Discrimination against Women .

    According to Article 1 of the Convention, discrimination means any “distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference” based on the characteristics mentioned with the aim or consequence “that thereby an equal recognition, enjoyment or exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms” in the area of ​​public life “ thwarted or impaired ”.

    The agreement prohibits racist acts and laws as well as the spread of racist ideas. The states parties must confront racial hatred and racist propaganda. It requires the contracting states to provide effective legal protection and, if necessary, appropriate compensation. You are obliged to take measures to reduce prejudice and to promote understanding between different population groups. Article 2 (2) provides for “positive discrimination”, ie promotional measures to protect groups who are discriminated against until equality has been achieved.

    Monitoring compliance with the agreement

    The legal implementation took place in very different ways in the various states. The UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination , consisting of eighteen elected, independent experts , the treaty body responsible for the Racial Discrimination Convention (internationally common abbreviation: CERD, for short: Anti-Discrimination Committee ), monitors the implementation of these obligations . There are three mechanisms available to him for this: the state reporting procedure , the state complaint procedure and the individual complaint procedure .

    1. The state reporting procedure ( Art. 9 ): The committee discusses the state reports to be submitted every two years by the contracting states and can request further information on this. Since the nineties, he has increasingly taken into account information from civil society organizations. The treaty body may submit proposals or general recommendations to the contracting states.
    2. The State Complaints Procedure ( Art. 11 ff.): The complaints of one Contracting State about another are negotiated in a settlement commission specially set up by the committee. The latter then formulates its recommendations, which are communicated to the participating states. Because of its clumsiness, this procedure has so far been of little importance in practice.
    3. Individual Complaint Procedure ( Art. 14 ): Individuals from the territory of the State Party have the opportunity to lodge a complaint about any racial discrimination they have experienced. This only works if all possibilities of domestic legal remedy have been exhausted. The contract committee deals with the petitions addressed to it in this context . He transmits his suggestions and recommendations, if any, to the complainant and the State Party concerned. However, the state party must first have given the UN Secretary-General its fundamental consent to this mechanism. So far 45 states have done this.

    The agreement does not provide for sanctions for any of the three procedures. De jure there is no binding effect; de facto, however, the judgments of the UN organs have judgment. Complaints have suspensive effect and give the UN the opportunity to take precautionary measures.

    For disputes about the interpretation or application of the Convention "which cannot be settled by negotiation or in accordance with the procedures expressly provided for in this Convention", Article 22 enables submission to the International Court of Justice .

    Contract fulfillment in German-speaking countries

    Germany has so far complied with its state reporting obligations, but sometimes with a delay. The fifteenth periodic report, due in 2005, was not drawn up until the summer of 2006. The Committee had included some critical comments in its Concluding Observations on previous periodical reports from Germany. Germany did not make a declaration to submit to the individual complaint procedure until 2001.

    Thilo Sarrazin in July 2009

    On February 26, 2013, the first individual proceedings against Germany ended with a complaint from the responsible UN committee for breach of contract. The background was a complaint from the Turkish Federation of Berlin-Brandenburg (TBB) - represented by the lawyer Jutta Hermanns and supported by the German Institute for Human Rights - about the Berlin public prosecutor's office , which Thilo Sarrazin's interview statements made in 2009 about Turkish and Arab migrants as free expression of opinion panelist and then the complaint of the TBB for sedition reflected . The UN committee asked Germany to comment within 90 days. In April 2013, the German federal government announced a statement by the Ministry of Justice. In July 2013 the German government announced changes to the anti-racism legislation. In a verbal note to the anti-racism committee of the United Nations in Geneva , it was said that the federal government is currently examining the German legislation on the criminal liability of racist statements in the light of the statements of the committee. The importance of the right to freedom of expression will have to be taken into account. In the meantime, the Federal Ministry of Justice had asked the Berlin public prosecutor's office to re-examine the factual and legal situation and to use “every opportunity” to “reconsider” the termination of the investigation against Thilo Sarrazin. The Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office announced in July 2013 that the result of the examination had remained with the closure of the proceedings.

    Austria ratified the Racial Discrimination Convention in 1972 and also accepts the responsibility of the Racial Discrimination Committee for individual complaints.

    The Switzerland joined the convention in 1994 and reported on this to some reservations. At the same time she declared the admission of individual complaints. Switzerland submitted its second and third periodic reports in 2002.

    literature

    • David Nii Addy, Racial Discrimination. International obligations and challenges for human rights work in Germany , hrg. German Institute for Human Rights, Berlin 2005
    • Patrick Thornberry, Confronting Racial Discrimination: A CERD Perspective . In: Human Rights Law Review 5: 2 (2005) pp. 239–269 ( The author is a member of the UN Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. )
    • Patrick Thornberry, The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. A Commentary , Oxford 2016
    • Atsuko Tanaka, Yshinobu Nagamine, The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination: A Guide for NGOs . (Eds. Of International Movement Against All Form of Discrimination and Racism and Minority Rights Group International) London, January 2001, PDF

    Web links

    Individual evidence

    1. ^ International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. (No longer available online.) In: United Nations Treaty Database. United Nations, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on May 13, 2019 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / treaties.un.org
    2. ^ Lawyer Jutta Hermanns: Statement
    3. ↑ H. Cremer, B. Rudolf: Statement by the German Institute for Human Rights in the proceedings before the UN Anti-Racism Committee of the Turkish Federation in Berlin-Brandenburg eV ./. Germany (complaint no. 48/2010) (PDF; 219 kB), December 2011.
    4. ↑ Text of the United Nations, AZ: CERD / C / 82 / D / 48/2010: Decision in English (PDF; 295 kB)
    5. ↑ Fatina Keilani: UN reprimand Germany because of Sarrazin In: Der Tagesspiegel , April 18, 2013.
    6. ↑ Andrea Dernbach: Federal government replies to the UN's accusation of racism In: Der Tagesspiegel , July 11, 2013.
    7. ↑ Andrea Dernbach: No trial against Sarrazin In: Der Tagesspiegel , July 16, 2013.