UN CERD Publishes Findings On Armenia, Ecuador, Greece, Kenya, Monaco, Saudi Arabia

GENEVA (13 December 2024) - The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) today issued its findings on Armenia, Ecuador, Greece, Kenya, Monaco, Saudi Arabia after reviewing the six States parties in its latest session.

The findings contain the Committee’s main concerns and recommendations on the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, as well as positive aspects. Key highlights include:

Armenia
While welcoming the information provided by the State party that there is no longer any exception to the minimal age of 18 for marriage in domestic law, the Committee stated that child marriage remains frequent in the minority Yezidi community and that the unregistered marriages rate is particularly high among Yezidi people. It recommended that Armenia further its efforts and take all necessary steps to prevent all instances of early marriage.

The Committee expressed concern over delays in passing two key anti-racial discrimination laws: the Law on Ensuring Equality, essential for fully implementing the Convention, and the Law on National Minorities. It reminded Armenia of its repeated recommendations to adopt these laws and reiterated its call for the State party to urgently finalize these draft laws and align its legislation with the Convention.

Ecuador
The Committee was concerned about the absence of disaggregated statistics needed to fully assess the rights and living conditions of historically marginalised groups. It also observed reports of institutional and technical shortcomings that affected the self-identification and participation of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants, and Montubio people, reducing the quality and representativeness of the data. The Committee was particularly troubled by inconsistencies in statistics on Afro-descendants, whose population figures varied significantly across censuses and differed from regional population projections. It urged Ecuador to review self-identification categories in consultation with Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants, Montubio people, and civil society organisations to ensure accurate and inclusive statistics, enabling effective public policies.

The Committee was alarmed by alleged labour exploitation, especially in peripheral and rural areas. It was particularly concerned about cases reportedly connected with the Furukawa company, which mainly affect the Afro-descendant population in Esmeraldas, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas and Los Ríos. It urged Ecuador to prevent, investigate, and punish all forced labour and labour exploitation cases, ensuring that victims have access to effective judicial remedies, adequate protection and reparation, and that perpetrators are prosecuted and punished accordingly.

Greece
The Committee raised concerns about widespread hate crimes and hate speech targeting Roma and non-citizens, noting low reporting rates due to the lack of trust by victims in law enforcement agencies, fear of reprisals, lack of awareness about complaint mechanisms, and the normalization of hate crimes among vulnerable groups. It also highlighted the low conviction rates for hate crimes and inconsistent recognition of racist motives by prosecutors and courts. It called upon Greece to take steps to encourage reporting of hate speech and hate crimes, ensure safe and accessible reporting channels, and enhance training for justice officials, including police, prosecutors, and judges, on identifying, registering, and addressing racial discrimination and hate crimes.

The Committee expressed concerns about reported incidents of pushbacks and forced returns at sea and land borders, where migrants and asylum seekers need protection, in violation of the principle of non-refoulement. These incidents involved excessive use of force, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, arbitrary detention without legal guarantees, and sometimes leading to death of migrants and asylum seekers. It asked Greece to investigate all reports of human rights abuses, including forced return, pushback, excessive use of force and violence, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment by law enforcement officials against migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers, particularly those deprived of their liberty, prosecute and punish those convicted with appropriate penalties.

Kenya
The Committee took note of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations related to human rights violations occurring in recent electoral processes in the country. The Committee was, however, concerned about the absence of detailed information from the State party on implementing the Commission’s recommendations. The Committee also highlighted the continued delay in operationalizing the Restorative Justice Fund. It asked Kenya to step up efforts to ensure that all of the Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations are fully and effectively implemented, including expediting the process of making the Restorative Justice Fund fully operational and making the Commission’s full report public.

The Committee was also concerned about the lack of access to justice, compensation, and redress for Indigenous Peoples’ land rights, as well as the slow and limited progress in implementing reparations for historical injustices, particularly land rights violations against the Kipsigis and Talai communities. It called on Kenya to take all necessary measures to fully implement the rulings of regional courts and the country’s High Court to compensate various ethnic groups. These include the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights decision in the case of the Endorois Welfare Council v. Kenya, the African Court on Human and People’s Rights decision in the case of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights v. Kenya concerning the Ogiek people; and Keyan’s High Court decision concerning the Sengwer people. It additionally urged the state party to fully implement the National Land Commission’s recommendations for the Kipsigis and Talai communities.

Monaco
The Committee welcomed relevant legislation, including an introduction of a provision on the principle of non-discrimination between civil servants on the grounds of their physical appearance or ethnicity. However, it expressed concern that the national legislative framework does not contain a definition of racial discrimination fully in line with the Convention. The Committee recommended that Monaco adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation with a clear definition of racial discrimination, including its direct, indirect, multiple and intersecting forms, which encompasses all areas of law in both the public and private spheres.

The Committee voiced concerns about the five-year residency requirement for non-nationals to access social, medical, and housing assistance, leaving low-income non-nationals without adequate support. It was also concerned about trade union laws requiring a majority of Monegasque and French nationals in leadership roles. It called on Monaco to ensure non-nationals with low incomes can access assistance, including by reducing the residency requirement. It also asked the State party to expedite amendments to trade union legislation to allow non-discriminatory access to leadership positions.

Saudi Arabia
The Committee expressed concern that members of the Shia ethno-religious minority group, migrant workers and domestic workers, including women, are overrepresented in the criminal justice system and disproportionately subjected to arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment along with the absence of fair trial guarantees and coerced confessions, particularly in cases involving the death penalty. The Committee urged the State to impose a moratorium on the death penalty with the aim of abolishing it. It also called for justice system reforms to limit the death penalty to the most serious crimes, ensure fair trials, and prohibit the use of evidence obtained through torture or duress.

The Committee voiced its concern over the indefinite detention of undocumented migrants and asylum seekers without judicial oversight and the inhumane detention conditions, and violations by law enforcement officers, including excessive use of force, torture, sexual violence, and extrajudicial killings. It also stated concerns about deportations violating non-refoulement and systematic pushbacks at the Yemen border, involving excessive and lethal use of force and firearms and extrajudicial killings. It asked Saudi Arabia to investigate all reports of abuses and violations against migrants and asylum seekers, particularly those committed in detention facilities and at the border with Yemen, bring those accountable to justice, and provide adequate redress and support to victims. The Committee also recommended that the State party refrain from collective expulsion, deportation and pushback, ensuring international protection and respecting the principle of non-refoulement.

The above findings, officially named Concluding Observations, are now available online on the session page.

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