8/15 Efforts by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for universal ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

UNITED NATIONS

A

General Assembly Distr. GENERAL

A/HRC/8/15 30 April 2008

Original: ENGLISH

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Eighth session Agenda item 2

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND REPORTS OF THE OFFICE OF THE HIGH

COMMISSIONER AND THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

Efforts by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for universal ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

Note by the Secretariat* **

In its decision 2/102, the Human Rights Council requested the High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue with the fulfilment of her activities, in accordance with all previous decisions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights and to update the relevant reports and studies. The present note is submitted pursuant to resolution 2005/64, in which the Commission on Human Rights requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to publish a list of countries that had not yet ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to initiate a reinvigorated campaign for universal ratification of the Convention, and to report on its efforts in that regard.

_________________________

* The present note is submitted further to the note by the Secretariat of 4 February 2008

(A/HRC/7/40). **

Late submission.

GE.08-13193

In this regard, and further to the efforts outlined in the note by the Secretariat of January 2007 (A/HRC/4/51), on 24 April 2008, the High Commissioner for Human Rights again sent a letter to those 22 States that had yet to become parties to the Convention, encouraging them to take the necessary action.

The following six States have signed but not ratified the Convention: Bhutan (26 March 1973), Djibouti (14 June 2006), Grenada (17 December 1981), Guinea-Bissau (12 September 2000), Nauru (12 November 2001), Sao Tome and Principe (6 September 2000).

The following 16 States have neither signed nor ratified the Convention: Angola, Brunei Darussalam, Cook Islands, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Dominica, Kiribati, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Myanmar, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Singapore, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.

The list of the above-mentioned States has been made public on the OHCHR website (www.ohchr.org).

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