PART II – CERD AND ITS WORK • • Responses to the concerns of the Committee included in its concluding observations (except for the initial CERD-specific document); and Involvement of civil society in the reporting process In order to monitor the progress in eliminating discrimination based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin, CERD also requests information on persons who might be treated less favourably on the basis of these characteristics. States that do not have such information are then requested to provide information based on such as mother tongue or commonly spoken languages, together with any information about race, colour, descent, national and ethnic origin. CERD is also interested in information indicating whether groups, and if so which groups, are officially identified as national or ethnic minorities. It also recommends that information on the situation of descent based communities, non-citizens and internally displaced persons be included.54 Some State reports give the impression that, if the Convention has become part of legal order of the given country, no further legislative action is necessary. However, the Convention, first of all, requires legislation that clearly and specifically prohibits racial discrimination and related acts. Second of all, it calls for further concrete action in the judiciary and administration, as well as in the fields of culture, education and information. Similarly, a State party does not fulfil its obligations under the Convention simply by condemning racial discrimination e.g. in the Constitution of the country. b) Reporting Cycle The process of consideration of States Parties’ reports can be seen as a cycle: 1) Preparation and submission of the report by the State party; 2) Designation of Country Rapporteurs and issuance of the list of themes by CERD; 3) Consideration of the report by CERD; 4) Issuance of Concluding Observations by CERD; 5) Implementation of CERD’s Concluding Observations / Recommendations by the State party (Follow-up); 6) Preparation of next periodic report by the State party (start of the next cycle) c) Country Rapporteur and list of themes Once a state report is submitted to the Committee, it will be put in the list of “Reports received and pending consideration by the Committee”.55 CERD then decides which reports should be considered at the next session and designates one of its members to be the so-called “Country Rapporteur” for each State party i.e. its consideration. The Country Rapporteur plays a leading role in: i) drafting the “List of Themes”, ii) the examination of the report, and iii) in the preparation of the relevant concluding observations. Instead of “list of issues” which requires written answers from the State party concerned, CERD established a new practice of “list of themes” at its 77th Session.56 Unlike the list of issues, the list of themes does not require written replies but is meant to guide the dialogue between the States party’s delegation and the Committee during its examination in Geneva. While the list of issues is a compilation of concrete questions to be answered, the list of themes is a compilation of themes or topics which should be raised in the course of the dialogue. Both 54 Please also refer to the CERD’s General Recommendation No. 24 (1999) These lists are included in the document “Status of submission of reports by States parties under article 9, paragraph 1, of the Convention” which will be prepared for every CERD session and can be found in the top of respective session website (e.g. for CERD th 77 session, visit: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/cerds77.htm). 56 http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/cerds77.htm 55 14 ICERD & CERD: A GUIDE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ACTORS