1. International Human Rights Law and
CERD – The Framework for Civil Society
Participation
Kris Gledhill
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of
Auckland; Director, NZ Centre for Human
Rights Law, Policy and Practice

2. Outline and Aim
• Outline International Framework for
Protection of Human Rights (including
reference to regional mechanisms)
• Role of CERD in this Framework
• Outline of International Mechanisms
• Introduction to Role of NGOs in the
International Mechanisms

3. Introductory Comments
• The age of human rights – usually traced to the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN 1948) – ie
post WWII and post Great Depression of the 1930s: one
of the first significant acts of the UN
• UN Charter 1945 set out plans to develop human rights:
the UN Economic and Social Council established a
Commission on Human Rights, which was replaced in
2006 by the UN Human Rights Council)
• Has also promulgated various human rights treaties.

4. UN Bill of Rights, Core Treaties
and Monitoring Bodies
• ICERD - International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination, 21 Dec 1965; CERD
• ICCPR and Optional Protocols 1, 16 Dec
1966, and 2, 15 Dec 1989; HRC
• ICESCR and Optional Protocol, 10 Dec
2008; CESCR

5. Further Treaties
• CEDAW - Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 Dec
1979; OP, 10 December 1999; CEDAW
• CAT - Convention against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment, 10 Dec 1984; OP 18 Dec 2002;
CAT
• CRC - Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20
Nov 1989; OP 1 (armed conflict) and OP 2
(trafficking), 25 May 2000; CRC

6. Further Treaties
• ICRMW - International Convention on the
Protection of the Rights of All Migrant
Workers and Members of Their Families,
18 Dec 1990; CMW
• CPED - International Convention for the
Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance, 20 Dec 2006; CPED
• CRPD - Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities, and OP, 13 Dec
2006; CRPD

7. Regional Treaties
• Council of Europe
• Organisation of American States
• African Union
• League of Arab States

8. International and Domestic Law
• State sovereignty
• Monism and Dualism
• International Human Rights Law and Impact
in Domestic Law:
– Basic Obligation to Enforce (choice of means left
to state)
– Horizontal Effect
• International stewardship through Human
Rights Council and Treaty-based Committees
– Monitoring, Complaints and Inquiries

9. Role of CERD
• Fundamental value of equality: made clear from both the
general (ICCPR and ICESCR) and the various specialist
Conventions
• CERD – Art 2 obligation to prevent racial discrimination
(negative obligation) and encourage multiracial
institutions (positive obligation)
• Supplemented by various additional specifics:
– Art 4 – duty to criminalise incitement to racist hatred and
discrimination, and organisations based on such propaganda
– Art 5 – need to ensure equality in relation to both civil and
political rights and also economic social and cultural rights

10. International Human Rights Law – 1. Treaty
Based Bodies
• Human Rights Committee (CCPR)
• Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
• Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD)
• Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW)
• Committee against Torture (CAT) &
Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) - Sub
• Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
• Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW)
• Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
• Committee on Enforced Disappearance (CED)

11. International Human Rights Law – 2.
Charter Based Bodies
• Human Rights Council
– Universal Periodic Review – ie general review
of manner in which a country lives up to its
obligations under international human rights
treaties; each state is reviewed every 4 years
– Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council
– looking at thematic issues around the
World, or at the situations in particular
countries

12. Types of Work – Individual
Complaints
• Complainants
– Any individual who claims that her or his rights have under the
covenant or convention have been violated by a State party to
that treaty: may be represented
• The Human Rights Committee may consider individual
communications relating to States parties to the
First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
; [NZ signed and ratified 1989; Australia in 1991]
• The CEDAW may consider individual communications relating to
States parties to the
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination A
; [NZ signed and ratified in 2000, Australia in 2008]

13. Individual Complaints - cntd
• The CAT may consider individual communications relating to States
parties who have made the necessary declaration under
article 22 of the Convention Against Torture; [NZ made the
declaration in 1989, Australia in 1993]
• The CERD may consider individual communications relating to
States parties who have made the necessary declaration
under article 14 of the Convention on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination; [NZ has NOT; Australia DID in 1993] and
• The CRPD may consider individual communications relating to
States parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities. [NZ has NOT; Australia DID in
2009]

14. Developments
• Human Rights Council is establishing a complaint
procedure
• The ICESCR has a monitoring committee, the CESCR –
will be able to consider communications when the
Optional Protocol of 2008 comes into force: [NZ has
NOT signed this; nor has Australia]
• The Convention on Migrant Workers also contains
provision for allowing individual communications to be
considered by the CMW; these provisions will become
operative when 10 states parties have made the
necessary declaration under article 77.

15. Types of Work – Inquiries
• The Committee Against Torture and
theCommittee on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women may, on their
own initiative, initiate inquiries if they have
received reliable information containing well-
founded indications of serious or systematic
violations of the conventions in a State party.
• Special Procedures - also involve investigations
as part of their Human Rights Council mandate

16. Types of Work – Country
Reports
• Treaty monitoring bodies and country
reports: central obligation under the
various human rights treaties
• Human Rights Council and Universal
Periodic Review
• Human Rights Council and Special
Procedures (which can be country
specific)

17. Role for NGOs and Civil Society
• Supporting of individual complaints (eg
specialist law centres – Interights, Aire
Centre, MDAC)
• Collating information to feed into inquiries
• Shadow reporting process encouraged by
both Human Rights Council (which allows
civil society to set agenda) and Treaty
Monitoring Bodies (which use shadow
reports to test government accounts of
progress)