Niger: UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to Review Records

By Staff Writer 

Niamey— Niger’s record on tackling racial discrimination will face scrutiny by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on Thursday 6 August and Friday 7 August in meetings that will be webcast live.

Niger is one of the 177 States Parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and so is required to submit regular reports to the Committee, which is composed of 18 international independent experts.

The meetings between the Committee and a delegation from the Niger Government will take place on 6 August from 15:00 – 1800 (14:00 – 17:00 in Niger) and on 7 August from 10:00 – 13:00 (09:00 – 12:00 ) in Room VII at Palais des Nations in Geneva, Geneva. The live webcast of the public sessions will be at http://www.treatybodywebcast.org.

Among the possible issues to be raised: Measures to combat broadcasting of xenophobic statements; steps to eliminate discrimination based on descent; efforts to combat the practice of slavery, including forced labour and forced marriage; efforts to reduce ethnic and regional disparities in access to education, housing, health care and employment; promotion of culture and languages of different ethnic groups; promotion of economic, social and cultural rights of nomadic populations; impact of uranium extraction on health and way of life of the Tuaregs.

The Committee will publish its concluding observations on Niger and the other countries being reviewed – Colombia, Costa Rica, Suriname, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Czech Republic, Norway, and the Netherlands in the website http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=978&Lang=en on 28 August:

This year is the 50th anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which is the longest established of the main international human rights treaties. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 21 December 1965.