About the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1969. Since then, 177 of countries have become parties to the treaty, including the United States, which ratified it in 1994.
CERD requires countries to take positive steps, including affirmative action, to eliminate racial discrimination—which the Convention defines as:
[A]ny distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.
The CERD explicitly mandates its signatories to recognize discrimination in policies that have a disproportionately unfair impact on individuals and groups based on race and ethnicity. And, unlike the rights enumerated in U.S. Constitution, the CERD explicitly grants individuals the right to quality healthcare, education, and housing. Nations that are party to the CERD must periodically report to the United Nations CERD committee on their progress in removing practices that foster inequality.
The United States submitted its first report on compliance with the CERD in 2000. In response, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, in partnership with a number of our member organizations, submitted a responsive report (known as a "shadow" report) on U.S. compliance, in an attempt to bring the perspective of the U.S. civil rights community to the deliberations of the CERD committee.
In April 2007, the United States submitted its second CERD compliance report. Once again, the Leadership Conference submitted its second shadow report to the CERD committee in an attempt to highlight the government’s role in the continuing racial and ethnic disparities that undermine equality, including issues such as environmental racism, threats to affirmative action programs in education and employment, the lack of more effective laws to combat hate crimes, racial disparities in the criminal justice system, erosions in the rights of indigenous peoples, threats to voting rights for racial, ethnic, and language minorities, racism in national immigration policies, continued discrimination in housing, the erosion of civil rights and liberties that has been an outgrowth of the so-called "war on terror" since 9/11, and the lack of effective response to the social and economic issue laid bare in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Click here to watch video of the U.S. government's opening statement and to read the latest news updates from the UN CERD committee.
Return to Resources.
