International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)

The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 21 December 1965 in resolution 2106 (XX) and entered into force on 4 January 1969. Its preamble rests on the UN Charter's principle of the dignity and equality of all human beings, on the Universal Declaration's proclamation that all are born free and equal without distinction as to race, colour or national origin, on the United Nations' condemnation of colonialism and segregation, and on the 1963 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The States Parties declare themselves convinced that any doctrine of superiority based on racial differentiation is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust and dangerous.

Article 1 defines racial discrimination as any 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 equal recognition, enjoyment or exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms in political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life. Two limits are stated in the same article and should not be passed over: the definition does not apply to distinctions a State Party makes between citizens and non-citizens, and it does not affect a State's legal provisions on nationality, citizenship or naturalisation provided those provisions do not discriminate against a particular nationality. A fourth paragraph makes clear that special measures taken solely to secure the adequate advancement of certain racial or ethnic groups are not racial discrimination, provided they do not lead to separate rights being maintained once their purpose is achieved.

Article 2 sets out what States undertake to do. They engage in no act or practice of racial discrimination and ensure public authorities comply; they do not sponsor or support racial discrimination by any person or organisation; they review and amend or rescind laws that create or perpetuate it; they prohibit and end racial discrimination by any person, group or organisation; and they encourage integrationist multiracial organisations while discouraging anything that strengthens racial division. Beyond those negative duties, States must take special and concrete measures in social, economic, cultural and other fields to ensure the adequate development and protection of certain racial groups, again without maintaining unequal or separate rights after the objective is met. Article 3 singles out racial segregation and apartheid for particular condemnation and commits States to prevent, prohibit and eradicate such practices in territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 4 goes further than most rights instruments in reaching speech and association. States condemn all propaganda and all organisations based on ideas of racial superiority or attempting to justify racial hatred and discrimination, and they undertake to make punishable by law the dissemination of ideas of racial superiority or hatred, incitement to racial discrimination, and acts of violence or incitement against any race or ethnic group, including the financing of such activities. Organisations that promote and incite racial discrimination are to be declared illegal and prohibited, with participation in them an offence, and public authorities are not permitted to promote or incite racial discrimination.

Article 5 lists the rights in which equality before the law must be guaranteed, and the list is deliberately comprehensive: equal treatment before tribunals; security of person and protection against violence; political rights including voting, standing for election, participation in government and equal access to public service; civil rights including movement, residence, leaving and returning to one's country, nationality, marriage, property ownership, inheritance, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, opinion and expression, and peaceful assembly and association; economic, social and cultural rights including work, free choice of employment, favourable conditions, protection against unemployment, equal pay for equal work, trade unions, housing, public health, medical care, social security, education and training, and equal participation in cultural activities; and the right of access to any place or service intended for use by the general public. Article 6 requires effective protection and remedies through competent national tribunals, together with the right to seek just and adequate reparation for damage suffered, and Article 7 requires immediate and effective measures in teaching, education, culture and information to combat the prejudices that lead to discrimination.

The institutional provisions establish the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, eighteen independent experts serving four-year terms, to which States report within one year and every two years thereafter. There is an inter-State complaint procedure with an ad hoc Conciliation Commission, and an individual or group complaint procedure under Article 14 for States that separately accept that competence. Article 15 addresses petitions from inhabitants of Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories pending decolonisation, which dates the Convention precisely to its moment. Reservations incompatible with the Convention's object and purpose, or that would inhibit the operation of its bodies, are not permitted. The authentic texts are Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.