The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) was the first treaty to be established. The body of independent experts monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The committee was created due to the conviction of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly that the Treaty would only be effective when sufficient emphasis was placed on the implementation.

All State parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the Committee, initially one year after acceding to the Convention and then every two years. The Committee examines each report and addresses its concerns and recommendations to the State party in the form of “concluding observations”. For each Session there exists a possibility for NGOs to submit reports to the Committee in order to bring attention to certain issues concerning racial discrimination in respective countries.

NGOs do not brief during the plenary session, but do provide lunch-time briefings for country-specific information.