Director of The Centre for Reparation Research (CRR) at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor A. Verene Shepherd has been re-elected to serve a second four-year term on the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
Professor Shepherd’s candidature was endorsed by Jamaica and all of CARICOM.
As she did when first elected to the CERD in 2015, Professor Shepherd polled the highest number of votes, this time ahead of candidates from 13 other countries, including China, Germany, Iran, Qatar, Saudia Arabia and Russia.
CERD is one of the ten treaty bodies of the UN.
It comprises a team of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by its state parties.
Its 18 independent experts from different cultural and disciplinary backgrounds meet three times annually for dialogue with state parties on how they are implementing the articles of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, especially those related to racist hate speech and racial profiling.
As independent experts, CERD members, like other treaty body members, do not represent their countries on the Committee.