UNITED
NATIONS
CERD
International Convention on
the Elimination
of all Forms of
Racial Discrimination
Distr.
GENERAL
CERD/C/GC/32
24 September 2009
Original: ENGLISH
COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION
OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
Seventy-fifth session
3 - 28 August 2009
General recommendation No. 32
The meaning and scope of special measures in the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms Racial Discrimination
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Background
1.
At its seventy-first session, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(“the Committee”) decided to embark upon the task of drafting a new general recommendation
on special measures, in light of the difficulties observed in the understanding of such notion. At
its seventy-second session, the Committee decided to hold at its next session a thematic
discussion on the subject of special measures within the meaning of articles 1, paragraph 4, and
2, paragraph 2 of the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (“the
Convention”). The thematic discussion was held on 4 and 5 August 2008 with the participation
of States parties to the Convention, representatives of the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and non-governmental
organizations. Following the discussion, the Committee renewed its determination to work on a
general recommendation on special measures, with the objective of providing overall
interpretative guidance on the meaning of the above articles in light of the provisions of the
Convention as a whole.
GE.09-45147