PART III – CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION b) Lobbying the national government Civil society actors can lobby the government in various ways e.g. contacting relevant ministries, departments, local authorities, parliamentarians and other stakeholders; and/or organising meetings, conferences, or workshops to discuss and facilitate implementation of recommendations. When ICERD and State obligations under the Convention are not familiar to stakeholders, some kind of awareness raising event and/or activities should also be organised. Civil society actors can refer to CERD’s concluding observations at other international forums such as the Human Rights Council or UPR, other Treaty Bodies’ sessions, or regional forum to indirectly urge the national government to take actions. c) Disseminating information and raising awareness Civil society actors can inform the public and raise awareness about the Committee’s concluding observations / recommendations to the State concerned not only by distributing them, but also by translating them into the national language(s) and, more importantly, into the language of ethnic or minority groups in the country. The national media can also be contacted to assist with raising awareness. For those who are not familiar with ICERD and CERD’s work, briefings or any other information event can be organised. Moreover, seminars and workshops are useful to discuss actions with relevant stakeholders. It is also important to raise the awareness of national courts and other law enforcement organs / officers, so that ICERD and Committee observations can be fully implemented. Illustration 16: Experience of Japanese NGOs: Follow-up90 After the CERD consideration of Japan in February 2010, we translated the concluding observations into Japanese and shared the translated text with all concerned groups and individuals. The text was also uploaded on the IMADR’s website. Press release with the brief translation was sent to the Japanese media for their news coverage. Three newspapers and one news agency took it up and covered in their papers. Other organizations and movements that joined the coalition (named “ERD Net”) also shared and reported the outcomes of the CERD consideration using their own media. Following the dissemination of information, the ERD Net held a public meeting in May 2010 inviting those members who went to Geneva as speakers. They shared first-hand information with participants. As a part of the follow-up, IMADR published a book in Japanese entitled “Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Japan Faces the Last-Minute Challenge” containing all the relevant documents and articles concerning the CERD consideration. It also includes the transcript of the dialogue between CERD and the Japanese government during the session. So far, about 1,000 copies were sold. The most important in our follow-up activities rests with dialogues with the government and parliament members. ERD Net, through the coordination of IMADR, has been in contact with the Japanese government. While NGOs and the civil society welcome strong statements and recommendations made in Concluding Observations by CERD, we cannot be contended with these outcomes. We are stepping into the next challenge to discuss with the government about its observation and implementation of the recommendations. Based on the list of questions that we submitted to relevant government agencies including Ministries of Justice, Foreign Affairs, Education, Health-Welfare-Labor, and Cabinet Office, dialogues with them have started. In the meantime, we approach to members of the Diet which is also responsible to the implementation of the Convention. For us, it is specifically important to get them involved since they are usually not well informed of what are recommended by UN human rights mechanisms in regard to the implementation of human rights instruments ratified by Japan. 90 Communication from Ms. Megumi Komori, Under-Secretary-General, IMADR / IMADR Japan Committee 33 ICERD & CERD: A GUIDE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ACTORS