DUSHANBE, August 10, 2012, Asia-Plus — The ongoing 81st session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) considered joined reports of Tajikistan on laws, as well as judicial, administrative and other measures adopted to eliminate racial discrimination on August 8-9.
The UN News Center reports that Tajik Minister of Justice Rustam Mengliyev noted that racial equality was provided for by the country’s Constitution. There 137 ethnic groups in Tajikistan with a population of 7.8 million people, the minister noted.
Mengliyev noted that the Tajik authorities were conducting a sturdy policy of preventing racial, sexual, ethnic, religious and linguistic discrimination in the country. Freedom of speech reigns in the country and many news agencies have websites in several languages, Mengliyev said.
According to him, the Tajik authorities have recently intensified measures to find solution to problems faced by stateless persons and decide the fate of numerous asylum-seekers and refugees, especially from Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, during its eighty-first session, the CERD will hold a day of thematic discussion on racist hate speech in the context of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The discussion will be held on August 28.
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is a body of human rights experts tasked with monitoring the implementation of the Convention. It consists of 18 independent human rights experts, elected for four-year terms, with half the members elected every two years. Members are elected by secret ballot of the parties, with each party allowed to nominate one of its nationals to the Committee.
The Committee monitors the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) is a United Nations convention. A second-generation human rights instrument, the Convention commits its members to the elimination of racial discrimination and the promotion of understanding among all races. Controversially, the Convention also requires its parties to outlaw hate speech and criminalize membership in racist organizations. The Convention also includes an individual complaints mechanism, effectively making it enforceable against its parties. This has led to the development of a limited jurisprudence on the interpretation and implementation of the Convention.
The convention was adopted and opened for signature by the United Nations General Assembly on December 21, 1965, and entered into force on January 4, 1969. As of October 2011, it has 86 signatories and 175 parties.
