PART II – CERD AND ITS WORK 2. Work and functions of CERD The primary tasks of CERD are the consideration of State reports, individual communications, and consideration of situations under its early warning and urgent action procedure. In order to assist States parties in the implementation of their obligations under the Convention, CERD also issues a series of so called “General Recommendation”49 on various subjects, explaining its interpretation of the provisions of ICERD and making suggestions, recommendations or requests to the States parties (ref. also Annex IV). Detailed information on activities carried out by CERD and developments in its working methods during a given year are included in the CERD’s annual report. 2.1 Consideration of State Reports Under Article 9 (1) of the Convention, States parties are obliged to submit reports “on the legislative, judicial, administrative or other measures which they have adopted and which give effect to the provisions of this Convention” to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the consideration by CERD. Each State party undertakes to submit its initial report within one year after the entry into force of the ICERD for the State concerned, thereafter a report is required every two years (often called a periodic report) or whenever the Committee so requests. In some cases States parties assert that, since their governments believe that racial discrimination does not exist within their territories, they are not obliged to submit periodic reports. However, racial discrimination is a phenomenon that is actually or potentially prevalent in all countries, and thus all the States parties have an obligation to be vigilant, and to report on the measures taken to prevent or to combat racial discrimination. The Committee reports annually to the UN General Assembly on its activities and makes suggestions and general recommendations based on the examination of state reports and information received (ICERD Article 9 (2)). In relation to guidelines on a common core document and treaty specific documents contained in the harmonised guidelines on reporting under the international human rights treaties, 50 CERD adopted new reporting guidelines51 at its 71st Session in 2007.52 The guidelines provide States parties with information on how to prepare their reports especially in terms of form and content. Under the current Treaty Body reporting system, states should submit a common core document according to the said harmonised guidelines. The common core document should include: general information on the state concerned; general framework for the promotion and protection of human rights; and general information on non-discrimination and equality and effective remedies. If a Treaty Body considers that information of the common core document is out of date, it may request the state concerned to update it.53 a) Information to be included According to the new reporting guidelines of CERD, the Treaty- i.e. CERD-specific documents should not repeat the content of the common core document, but should include more specific information on e.g.: • • Implementation of Articles 1 to 7 of ICERD; Implementation of CERD’s recommendations included in its concluding observations (except for the initial CERD-specific document); 49 In the practice of other Treaty Bodies it can be referred as General Comments. HRI/MC/2006/3 and Corr.1 51 CERD/C/2007/1 52 The new guidelines replaced the previous one (CERD/C/70/Rev.5). 53 HRI/MC/2006/3, para. 27 50 13 ICERD & CERD: A GUIDE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ACTORS