In his lecture on ‘Germany and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination’ Payandeh discussed what the Convention and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) offer to contemporary debates on combatting racial discrimination in Germany.
How can the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination enhance the better understanding of racial discrimination and contribute to the transformatory processes necessary to eliminate racial discrimination not only in the letter of the laws, but also in the actual practices? The 2022 Annual Distinguished Lecture at the Centre for Fundamental Rights, delivered on 17 March 2022 by Mehrdad Payandeh, Professor of international law, European Union law and public law at Bucerius Law School and a member of the UN Committee that monitors the implementation of CERD across the globe, addressed this question with a specific focus on Germany.
Germany is a long-standing party to the Convention, having ratified the CERD in 1969. Yet, the Committee of CERD has had long standing concerns as to how effectively the Convention is implemented in Germany through laws, policies as well as institutional measures.
In his lecture, Prof. Payandeh focused on three key areas where the Convention and the practice of the Committee have the real potential to add value to current debates taking place in Germany concerning racial discrimination: 1) the CERD’s non-static definition of racial discrimination focussing on social patterns and practices 2) the focus it brings to structural aspects of racial discrimination, which is largely absent in Germany’s understanding of racial discrimination, and 3) the emphasis placed on special measures to combat racial discrimination, which Germany has experience with in the domain of gender discrimination, but remains largely unaddressed in the domain of racial discrimination.
Watch the lecture here:
About the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination:
The 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination is the first of the nine core human rights treaties of the United Nations. It prohibits discriminatory laws and practices of the State Parties as well as apartheid and segregation. It obliges States to take measures to protect groups and individuals from racial discrimination and to ensure that they can enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms to the full extent and on an equal footing with everyone else. States must fight hate speech, provide for effective remedies against discrimination, and take measures to combat prejudices and to promote understanding, tolerance, and friendship. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination monitors the application of the Convention as well as compliance of the member States with the Convention and contributes to its understanding through its decisions, views, as well as general recommendations.
Further reading:
The latest report outlining concerns and recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination to Germany was delivered in 2015. It is available here.
The most recent report of Germany to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination addressing recent developments and the Committee’s concerns and recommendations in 2015 was submitted in 2020 (review period December 2012 - June 2018. It is available here.