Racial Discrimination Committee reviews reports on 26 nations.

Racial Discrimination Committee reviews reports on 26 nations

Actions taken by 26 countries toeliminate racial discrimination were reviewed by the 18-member Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination at its thirty-fourth session (Geneva, 2-20 March).

The reports examined were from:Argentina, Brazil, Byelorussian SSR, Cameroon, Canada, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Democratic Kampuchea, Ethiopia, German Democratic Republic, Holy See, Hungary, India, Israel, Republic of Korea, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Panama, Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom and USSR.

Established in 1969, the Committeemonitors implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The instrument was adopted by the General Assembly in 1965 and entered into force on 4 January 1969. To date, 124 States have ratified or acceded to it. The Committee, which reports to the General Assembly, meets twice yearly to review reports of States parties.

In an agreed statement to be includedin its report, the Committee recalled its view that the occupation of the territories of a Member State party to the Convention constituted "a grave breach of the Convention', if its organs were prevented from fulfilling obligations under the Convention and demographic changes were imposed. The text stated that "some members of the Committee therefore expressed hope that the territorial integrity of Kampuchea would be re-established and that it shall be enabled to comply with international obligations under the Convention'.

The Committee also agreed on arrangementsregarding its role in activities envisaged for the last four-year period of the Second Decade to Combat Racial Discrimination, which will end in 1993. Endorsing plans for regional workshops to discuss experience in the functioning of national institutions concerned with efforts to combat racism, it expressed the hope that it would be closely associated with the conduct of the proposed regional workshops.

The Committee decided to explorethe possibility of organizing its own seminar to review, among other questions, the experience gained since 1970 in the implementation of the Convention.

On 20 March, the Committee helda brief ceremonial meeting to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (21 March). Proclaimed by the General Assembly in 1966, the Day marks the anniversary of the 1960 massacre of civilians at Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fired into a peaceful crowd protesting the apartheid regime's "pass laws'. Sixty-nine persons were killed and 180 were wounded.

Opening the commemorative session,Chairman John J. Cremona, expert from Malta, reaffirmed the Committee's total commitment and dedication to the cause of stamping out racial discrimination and the ideological monster which was apartheid. Committee members' thoughts were especially with all those who, in a world which was ever reaching out for the floodlit peaks of progress, were still languishing in the dark backwaters of racial segregation. "May this dark hour in southern Africa hearald a bright new dawn', he hoped.

The Committee also decided thatMr. Cremona should attend an emergency meeting of the contracting parties to be held in New York in April, and should present to States parties the Committee's views and suggestions for action to resolve the financial situation which resulted in cancellation of the session in 1986.

It was recommended that contractingparties set up a group to call on the Permanent Representatives of States parties which had not paid their assessed contributions in order to assist the Secretary-General in the collection of unpaid contributions. Under another recommendation, the New York emergency meeting would appeal to the States parties in arrears to pay their contributions by June.

The Committee's next regular sessionwill be held in August.

It was reported that 130 reports wereoverdue from 74 States, and States parties concerned would be requested to submit overdue reports by 30 June.