A/HRC/28/81 Committee on the subject of xenophobia; and Mr. Carlos Vazquez had presented on the subject of special measures, just the week prior. Mr. Kemal recalled the 2007 study by CERD (A/HRC/4/WG.3/7) which outlined possible measures to strengthen the implementation of the Convention, including a proposal to adopt an optional protocol to provide for an inquiry procedure. He continued that Mr. Alexey Avtonomov, in his capacity as CERD’s Chairperson had emphasized the fact that the Committee believes that the substantive provisions of the ICERD are sufficient to combat racial discrimination in contemporary conditions and that in the near future it ought to be able to address any problems without amending the Convention, substantially. 126. He stated that Mr. Avtonomov had also suggested, however, the possibility of an optional protocol to the Convention adopting procedures to make possible to undertake country visits to selected countries for the purposes of investigating and evaluating the situations. He concurred that implementation of the ICERD could be strengthened if supported by the optional protocol to establish an inquiry procedure. Such an inquiry procedure already existed for the Committee against Torture, CEDAW, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child. He noted that ICERD, adopted almost 50 years ago, remained relevant to new challenges faced today, and provided guidance on relevant and applicable standards owing to its flexible working methods, including through days of discussion, adoption of general recommendations, responding to urgent situations through early warning and urgent action procedures. 127. Mr. Kemal further highlighted the important role of General Recommendations that assist States Parties in interpreting the articles of the Convention and effectively implementing their obligations. CERD had adopted 35 general recommendations, including the most recent general recommendation on racist hate speech adopted in 2013. He stressed the fact that the Committee had been able to apply the Convention effectively to address new and emerging facts of discrimination based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin. He noted that the biggest obstacle to effectiveness was that a large number of countries did not submit reports at all, or their reports were chronically overdue. The second obstacle was the non-implementation of CERD’s recommendations, followed by the third obstacle which are reservations to ICERD. 128. Mr. Kemal also noted that CERD did not deal with discrimination on the grounds of religion. The Committee acted only if “intersectionality” were present. That meant that if persons belonging to another racial or ethnic group were also discriminated against on grounds of religion and gender – only then would such situation fall under CERD’s competence. CERD was also active when it came to early warning and urgent action, Mr. Kemal noted. CERD for example, adopted Decision 1(85) under its Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedure responding to the current turmoil in Iraq. In that decision, CERD denounced massacres and other human rights abuses by terrorist that called themselves “Islamic State”. 129. Brazil (on behalf of Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, the Republic of Korea and Switzerland) stated that CERD’s views were central to discussing procedural gaps with regard to the ICERD. These delegations were of the view that in order to prevent and combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, the best use of the existing international instruments must be made, and the implementation at national level (particularly the ICERD and the DDPA) secured. It recalled that Mr. Kemal had stated that there were procedural gaps with regard to ICERD, in areas such as visits to countries, evaluation and follow-up procedures. By dealing with these gaps, both the implementation and monitoring of ICERD would be improved. This would also have positive impacts on other the topics that had been discussed by the Committee, such as 46