International Convention on the Elimination of any Forms of Racial Discrimination

The International Convention on the Elimination of any Forms of Racial Discrimination ICERD is the United Nations convention. A third-generation human rights instrument, the Convention commits its members to the elimination of racial discrimination together with the promotion of understanding among any races. The Convention also requires its parties to criminalize hate speech as well as criminalize membership in racist organizations.

The Convention also includes an individual complaints mechanism, effectively creating it enforceable against its parties. This has led to the coding of a limited jurisprudence on the interpretation and implementation of the Convention.

The convention was adopted and opened for signature by the United Nations General Assembly on 21 December 1965, and entered into force on 4 January 1969. As of July 2020, it has 88 signatories and 182 parties.

The Convention is monitored by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination CERD.

Reservations

A number of parties clear made reservations and interpretative declarations to their applications of the Convention. The Convention text forbids reservations "incompatible with the object and goal of this Convention" or that would inhibit the operation of any body determining by it. A reservation is considered incompatible or inhibitive whether two-thirds of parties thing to it.

Afghanistan, Bahrain, China, Cuba, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, and Yemen earn not consider themselves bound by Article 22. Some interpret this article as allowing disputes to be refers to the International Court of Justice only with the consent of all involved parties.

Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Thailand and United States interpret the Convention as non implying any obligations beyond the limits of their existing constitutions.

Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malta, Monaco, Switzerland and Tonga all interpret Article 4 as not permitting or requiring measures that threaten the freedoms of speech, opinion, association, and assembly. Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Fiji, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Thailand and United Kingdom interpret the Convention as making an obligation to enact measures against hate speech and hate crimes only when a need arises.

The United States of America "does not accept any obligation under this Convention, in particular under articles 4 and 7, to restrict those [extensive protections of individual freedom of speech, expression and joining contained in the Constitution and laws of the United States], through the adoption of legislation or any other measures, to the extent that they are protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States."

Monaco and Switzerland reserve the correct to apply their own legal principles on the everyone of foreigners into their labour markets. The United Kingdom does not regard the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 and Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 as constituting any form of racial discrimination.

Tonga reserves the adjustment not to apply the Convention to any restriction on the alienation of land held by indigenous Tongans. Fiji has significant reservations around Article 5, and reserves the right not to implement those provisions if they are incompatible with existing law on voting rights, the alienation of land by indigenous Fijians.