For a comprehensive summary of today’s proceedings, click here.
Today’s proceedings of the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of Complimentary Standards focused on an attempt to reach consensus on what to discuss under the second topic under consideration, “Advocacy and incitement to racial, ethnic, national and religious hatred,” and whether to include the issue of profiling under this header. Ultimately, the President of the meeting decided not to recommend the issue to the Chair for inclusion in next week’s discussion, favoring xenophobia and the establishment of national mechanisms to protect against discrimination instead.
The day’s meeting began with a disagreement between the African Group and the EU and US on whether to remove the word “religious” from the wording of the second topic, “Advocacy and incitement to racial, ethnic, national and religious hatred.” The African Group and Pakistan favored its inclusion, claiming removing it would change the mandate of the committee, while the US and EU argued that there was not enough consensus on the issue of incitement to religious hatred to merit discussion of the topic if the word remained.
Nigeria, with Cuban support, raised the issue of profiling as a replacement for incitement. The EU accepted this with the condition that all types of profiling, including profiling based on health/sex life and trade union membership, be considered. To move the process forward, the EU proposed changing the wording of the advocacy topic to “Advocacy and incitement on multiple grounds.” South Africa and Nigeria rejected this suggestion as being contrary to the Durban Declaration and Program of Action, particularly the possible inclusion of the issue of sexual orientation as grounds for profiling. The EU and US disagreed with the interpretation that a wider consideration of profiling fell outside of the committee’s mandate.
Liechtenstein proposed that the topic be discussed under the title of “Profiling based on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.” Egypt objected, claiming that certain states were being obstructionist. The meeting’s President concluded the meeting by informing the committee that he would bring the issues of xenophobia and the establishment of national mechanisms to protect against discrimination to the Chair to be discussed next week, noting that those items exhibited the greatest degree of consensus and possibility for progress and constructive dialogue.