Fifty Years of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination: A Living Instrument

This is the very first edited collection on the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the oldest of the UN international human rights treaties, adopted on 21st December 1965. With a major introduction on the treaty and thirteen chapters, this book draws together a range of commentators including current or former members of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), along with academic and other experts, to discuss the meaning and relevance of the treaty on its fiftieth anniversary. ICERD pioneered the primary mechanisms of international human rights law, including a monitoring or treaty body, a state reporting mechanism, an individual complaints procedure, concluding observations and general recommendations. These mechanisms feature strongly in the collection as it examines the shift from an early and narrow understanding of racial discrimination in 1965, premised on countering colonialism and apartheid, to a much wider meaning today, whereby the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination draws in a range of groups such as minorities, indigenous peoples, caste groups, and Afro-descendants. The key 'living instrument' doctrine guides the narrative, as it does CERD, which interprets its mandate to ensure the treaty can respond to contemporary rights violations as witnessed and attested to by victims of racial discrimination. Underlying the analysis, the book asks to what extent States parties to the treaty implement key interpretations and recommendations. Its unique combination of CERD and expert analysis acts as a guide in understanding the legal obligations and their realization on the ground. The collection will be of interest to UN bodies and experts, scholars and students of international human rights law as well as race and racial discrimination, members or advocates of groups protected by the treaty, national and international non-governmental organisations, activists, and State parties and governments tasked with reporting on treaty obligations.