A/HRC/15/42 3. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Seventy-fourth session (16 February–6 March 2009) 41. At its seventy-fourth session, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in its concluding observations on the report of Bulgaria, remained concerned at the low levels of representation in public administration, specifically in the army and the police, of persons from certain minority groups, particularly the Roma. The Committee also expressed its concern at the practice of the State party of placing Roma children in schools for children with disabilities, and at the obstacles faced by the Roma in their access to work, housing, health care and education, cases of ill-treatment and the excessive use of force employed by the police against the Roma. 42. In the report submitted by the Congo, the Committee found that the State party had not included a legal definition of racial discrimination in its domestic legislation. The Committee recommended that the State party intensify efforts to establish harmonious inter-ethnic relations among various ethnic and cultural groups, especially those living in the north of the country. Regarding Croatia, the Committee remained concerned at the discrimination faced by the Roma, including in the fields of education, employment, housing, citizenship and political participation. It also observed that the Serb and Bosniak minorities faced similar difficulties to the Roma in gaining access to citizenship procedures. 43. In its concluding observations on the report submitted by Finland, the Committee welcomed the fact that the ombudsman for minorities had been transferred to the Ministry of the Interior as an independent authority. It expressed its concern at de facto segregation in the housing of Roma and immigrants, as well as the limited access of Roma to exercise their rights to education, employment and housing. 44. In assessing the State report of Montenegro, the Committee noted with concern that, despite efforts by the State party, many Roma children were not enrolled in school, nor were they completing higher education. It also found that the Roma faced discrimination in the spheres of education, employment, health care and social welfare. 45. With regard to the report submitted by Pakistan, the Committee observed that the State party had not yet adopted a law prohibiting caste-based discrimination, despite the persistence of de facto segregation and discrimination against Dalits in exercising their economic, civil, political and social rights. Another area of concern expressed by the Committee pertained to acts of violence against minority women, such as Baluchi women. It welcomed the efforts made to ensure adequate political participation of minorities, such as the reservation of seats for minority members in the National Assembly, and the introduction of quotas to admit members of minorities to Government services. Nevertheless, the Committee noted that minorities were considered only to encompass religious minorities, and that there was a lack of a specific policy or legislative framework to ensure the appropriate representation of all ethnic groups. 46. With regard to the report submitted by Turkey, the Committee, in its concluding observations, expressed concern that domestic laws resorted to restrictive criteria to determine the existence of ethnic groups. The use of such criteria to officially recognize certain groups as meeting the requirements to qualify as minorities, while denying the recognition of other groups as such, amounts to a practice that could give rise to differing treatment for various ethnic and other groups. This practice in turn could result in de facto discrimination in the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms as stipulated in article 5 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. 10 GE.10-14893