The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is an international human rights institution composed of 18 independent experts that monitors how State Parties implement the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). The ICERD is a binding international treaty adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 21, 1965, and entered into force on January 4, 1969. It was created to address the problem of widespread racial injustices, such as apartheid and segregation, building on the 1963 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
The Convention defines "racial discrimination" in Article 1 as any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin that impairs the enjoyment of human rights. Article 2 obliges State Parties, including India, to condemn and pursue a policy of eliminating racial discrimination in all its forms, while Article 4 mandates the criminalization of hate speech and organizations that promote racial superiority. CERD works primarily by reviewing periodic reports submitted by State Parties on their compliance, a process that typically occurs every two years. It also has mechanisms for accountability, including the consideration of individual complaints under Article 14 if a State has made a specific declaration, and a compulsory inter-state communication procedure under Articles 11-13.
The ICERD is historically significant as the first major international human rights agreement adopted after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). A recent development is the activation of the inter-state communication procedure in 2018, which had been dormant for decades, with the first three cases being Qatar v. United Arab Emirates, Qatar v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Palestine v. Israel. Disputes concerning the Convention's interpretation or application can also be referred to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) under Article 22.