ICERD AND ITS MONITORING BODY state party is obliged to submit: (a) an initial report within one year after the entry into force of the Convention for the state concerned, to provide comprehensive information on existing legislative, judicial, administrative or other measures which give effect to the provisions of ICERD; (b) thereafter, further comprehensive reports every four years that are expected to contain any new developments that took place after the submission of the previous report, information that CERD specifically requested, and answers to questions that were not fully dealt with from its previous reports; and brief updating reports in the intervening two-year periods, to literally briefly update the information contained in the comprehensive report; and (c) special reports whenever the Committee so requests, which are, for example, submitted by states parties whose situations are being considered by CERD in accordance with early warning measures and urgent procedures. According to the Manual on Human Rights Reporting,27 the Committee expects that the initial and comprehensive reports will include information on: i) states parties compliance with the obligation assumed under Article 1 of the Convention, ii) the ethnic characteristics of the country and iii) the text of the relevant laws, judicial decisions and regulations which relate to Articles 1 to 7 of the Convention. The Committee s obligation under Article 9.2 to report annually to the GA on its examination of the reports it receives is the centrepiece of its work. Article 9, however, is very broadly phrased and therefore provides the Committee with room to introduce innovations in its application. Thus, at a very early stage of CERD s existence it was decided that the examination of states parties reports would be carried out in the presence of the states parties so as to facilitate a constructive dialogue. This led to states parties sending a delegation of government officials to CERD s meetings when their report is scheduled for examination. The basic document that is the subject of the Committee s examination is the state report. Following the end of the Cold War, procedural innovations were introduced to the examination of the reports of states parties: ● The designation of Country Rapporteurs — as a result of informal consultations, members of the Committee take it upon themselves to prepare the examination of a states party s report through its close and detailed study on the basis of relevant and credible information. The Country Rapporteur plays a leading role in both the examination of the report and in the preparation of the concluding observations. Meanwhile, the other members of the Committee remain free to provide their own input. There is no pre-sessional working group at CERD, like that established by some of the other treaty bodies to draw up lists of issues on the states parties whose reports are due for consideration at the following sessions of respective committees. Nevertheless, a Country Rapporteur may — albeit rarely — prepare a list of issues in advance for circulation to the reporting state as well as to the other members of the Committee. ● The use of other sources of information. It is taken for granted that the report officially submitted by a state party is the main and principal source of information, but for a long time it remained highly controversial as to whether members of the Committee could also rely on other sources of information. It became gradually accepted that other UN materials, such as reports of Special Rapporteurs of the UN Commission on Human Rights and reports and comments of specialized agencies, could be taken into account. In more recent years, information from regional institutions such as the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) and also from NGOs have been taken into account and often explicitly referred to in the discussions, although some members of the Committee continue to show reservations regarding this practice. ● The drawing up of Concluding Observations. While in the past, individual members would express some personal opinions and assessments at the concluding stage of the examination of a state party s report, the Committee as a collective body refrained from doing so. This has changed; the Country Rapporteur, with the assistance of the Secretariat, prepares a first draft of Concluding Observations, which consist of a review of positive developments, issues of concern, and concrete suggestions and recommendations. The first draft is informally circulated among the members for their comments. The Country Rapporteur later submits a second draft, which is discussed and amended in formal (public) meetings, and finally adopted by the Committee for transmission to the state party concerned, to become a public document and to be included in the annual report of the Committee. A state party may submit its comments on the concluding observations for inclusion in the Committee s annual report to the GA (Article 9.2 of ICERD). The Concluding Observations are an important monitoring device and an effective tool for follow-up work. ICERD: A GUIDE FOR NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS 7