ICERD AND ITS MONITORING BODY In its General Recommendation XVII (42), the Committee also recommends that states parties set up national institutions to serve the following purposes, among others: a) to promote respect for human rights and the exercise thereof, free from any discrimination, as expressly stated in Article 5 of ICERD; b) to examine official policies towards the protection against racial discrimination; c) to monitor laws so that they comply with the provisions of ICERD; d) to educate the public as to the obligations which the states parties assume under ICERD. Furthermore, CERD pays close attention to questions such as whether states parties inform public opinion about human rights in general, and ICERD and CERD in particular, and whether ICERD has been translated into and published in the local languages.21 Generally, the Committee finds that states do not pay sufficient attention to the implementation of Article 7 and considers the information submitted under Article 7 as general and perfunctory . 3. ICERD’s monitoring body: the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) F rom the very beginning it was clear that the Convention would only be effective if there was an independent body for monitoring the implementation of the states obligations as indicated by ICERD. To this end, CERD was established; this set a precedent: five main UN human rights treaty bodies with comparable constitutions and functions were later created, namely, the Human Rights Committee (HRC), the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Committee against Torture (CAT), the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)22 and the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). A. Nature of CERD CERD is composed of 18 experts of high moral standing and acknowledged impartiality , who serve in a personal capacity (Article 8.1 of ICERD). The members are elected for a term of four years at a meeting of states parties (Articles 8.4 and 5a), and elections take place for half of the members at two-year intervals (Article 8.5a). In the election of the Committee members, consideration has to be given to equitable geographical distribution and to the representation of the different forms of civilization as well as of the principal legal system 6 (Article 8.1). At present, CERD includes a high number of diplomats or former diplomats among its members compared to other treaty bodies. This can be attributed to the perception by many states in earlier years that ICERD was a foreign policy instrument rather than a document with domestic implications. While this perception has changed, the practice of nominating and electing foreign policy experts to CERD has persisted. Under the Convention, the Committee shall establish its own rules of procedure and receive no directives from outside (Article 10). Indeed, CERD is an autonomous body, which is a common feature of all the treaty bodies except the CESCR. Nevertheless, strong organizational links with the UN exist: ● CERD was established under a Convention drafted by the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (in 1999 the SubCommission was renamed the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights), and adopted — through the Commission on Human Rights and the Economic and Social Council — by the GA. ● The meetings of the Committee are, at present, held twice a year (March and August) for three to four weeks23 at the United Nations Office in Geneva. Further, the Committee is serviced by the Secretariat of the United Nations (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights). ● Also significantly, CERD annually reports on its activities to the GA through the Secretary-General (Article 9.2). B. Working procedures CERD periodically reviews the legal, judicial, administrative and other steps taken by individual states parties under ICERD to fulfil their obligations to combat racial discrimination. The Convention provides a number of instruments to evaluate the states efforts and the overall situation. Its current mandate does not, however, include the possibility of CERD members investigating the situation by means of a field visit, although the Committee may send one or more of its members at the invitation of the country concerned for purposes of a close dialogue on the spot.24 a) Reporting system (Article 9)25 Under Article 9 of ICERD, and following a decision taken by the Committee at its 38th session in 1990,26 each ICERD: A GUIDE FOR NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS