Nine experts elected to panel monitoring UN anti-racism treaty

Elections were held at the United Nations today to choose nine members of an expert panel, which monitors implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Those elected today to serve four-year terms include Ralph F. Boyd, Jr. of the United States, a former government official who dealt with civil rights; José Francisco Cali Tzay, the founder of an indigenous rights programme in Guatemala; and Fatimata-Binta Victoire Dah, a career diplomat from Burkina Faso.

Today's balloting also saw the re-election of Alexei S. Avtonomov, a senior research fellow from the Russian Federation who speaks 11 languages; Patricia Nozipho January-Bardill who, during over two decades in exile from her native South Africa, conducted anti-apartheid activities; Luis Valencia Rodriguez, who has over half a century of experience in Ecuador's foreign service; Raghavan Vasudevan Pillai of India, who is a Senior Consultant with the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions; Tang Chengyuan, a legal expert from China; and Mario Jorge Yutzis of Argentina, who is the Vice?President of the International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism.

The newly elected experts will join nine members of the panel whose terms of office will expire in two years: Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr (Egypt); Nourredine Amir (Algeria); Régis de Gouttes (France); Kurt Herndl (Austria); Morten Kjaerum (Denmark); José A. Lindgren Alves (Brazil); Agha Shahi (Pakistan); Linos Alexandre Sicilianos (Greece); and Patrick Thornberry (United Kingdom).

The 1966 International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination commits States Parties to take measures to abolish that scourge in both law and practice. One hundred and sixty-nine countries are party to the pact.