PART II – CERD AND ITS WORK 2.4 General Recommendations and Thematic Discussions In order to assist States parties in interpreting articles of ICERD and implementing their obligations, CERD produces “General Recommendations”69 which provides the Committee’s interpretation of the articles of ICERD. So far 33 General Recommendations have been issued on various thematic topics. 70 These General Recommendations enable States parties and the Committee to have a better understanding of the types of issues and problems encountered by States when trying to translate the legal formulations contained in ICERD into practice. General Recommendations may also help NGOs to comprehend the meaning and implication of various provisions of the Convention. However, they are not legally binding on States parties. In addition, CERD regularly holds thematic discussions where other stakeholders e.g. States parties, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations are allowed to express their views. The first thematic discussion was organised in 2000 on the issue of discrimination against Roma. Since then there have been six thematic discussions71 and most of them have also connected with the drafting process of respective General Recommendations. Inter-state complaints (Article 11-13) All the states parties to the Convention recognize the competence of CERD to receive and act on a complaint by one of them that another is not giving effect to the provisions of the Convention (Article 11 (1)). However, no state party has yet resorted to this procedure, which provides, unless the matter is settled in another way, for the appointment of an ad hoc conciliation commission (Article 12). To date, no state has ever used the interstate procedures under any of the UN human rights treaties. 69 In the practice of other Treaty Bodies it can be referred as General Comments. Please refer to Annex IV of this guide and for the text of each recommendation to the CERD website: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/comments.htm 71 Please refer to http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/discussions.htm 70 23 ICERD & CERD: A GUIDE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ACTORS