PART III – CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION
3. Early Warning measures and Urgent Procedures
Civil society actors can submit information on situations to which attention of CERD should be drawn under its
early warning and urgent action procedure. Consistent with submissions given to the Committee during the
course of the State reporting cycle, and as individual communications, information should be fact based, nonadversarial and as concise and precise as possible. There is no fixed or model format for information submission
under this procedure, however, the revised guidelines of 200795 can be used as a reference. There are indicators
that have been set out by the Committee according to which CERD collects information and considers the
situation. These indicators can also be used by civil society actors when collecting and presenting information on
a particular situation which requires the attention of CERD and its urgent action. The indicators are outlined in
this guidebook, PART II, 2.3 a) in page 20 and 21. In providing information, civil society actors may also suggest
what kind of actions should be taken by the State concerned.
4. Thematic Discussions
CERD regularly holds thematic discussions96 on issues related to racial discrimination and ICERD. Civil society
actors can submit written information on the subject of each discussion. In addition, civil society actors are
allowed to orally express their views on the subject during the discussion. Usually the time allocated for each
civil society actor for an oral intervention is 5 minutes. Those who wish to make such oral intervention should
inform the CERD secretariat and provide one electronic version and 20 hard copies of their intervention.
95
Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-second Session, Supplement No. 18 (A/62/18), annex III, the version in English,
French and Spanish can be found at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/early-warning.htm
96
Please also refer to PART II 2.5 of this guide.
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ICERD & CERD: A GUIDE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ACTORS