A/HRC/44/57/Add.1 including through its recommendations to the Government and its submissions to human rights mechanisms such as the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. However, she notes that the work of the National Human Rights Committee and its impact on racial equality and the combating of racism and xenophobia remain limited. Indeed, although the National Human Rights Committee is empowered to receive complaints, the Special Rapporteur was informed that none of the complaints that it had received related to allegations of racial discrimination. She also learned that the National Human Rights Committee had not taken steps to determine the extent of nationality-based discrimination, although it was an issue of serious concern in Qatar. The Special Rapporteur regrets that despite awareness-raising and education measures implemented by that Committee, 7 including a media campaign on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,8 there is a serious lack of awareness among the population and State institutions on what constitutes prohibited racial discrimination. The National Human Rights Committee should play a more prominent role in combating racism and effectively implementing the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. 12. The Special Rapporteur notes the adoption of Law No. 12 of 2015 amending Decree Law No. 17 of 2010 regulating the National Human Rights Committee, in order to secure the independence and immunity of the Committee’s members.9 She encourages Qatar to ensure the effective independence of the Committee and to provide it with sufficient human and financial resources to carry out its mandate in compliance with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles) as previously recommended by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.10 13. During her visit, it was difficult to confirm the extent of racial discrimination in Qatar due to the lack of disaggregated statistical data on the ethnic and racial composition of the population, both among Qataris and non-Qataris. In this respect, the Special Rapporteur recalls that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination previously expressed a similar concern.11 B. Direct, indirect and structural racial discrimination, including based on nationality and national origin 14. Article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination defines prohibited racial discrimination as any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life. The prohibition on racial discrimination in international human rights law aims at much more than a formal vision of equality. Equality in the international human rights framework is substantive, and requires States, including Qatar, to take action to combat intentional or purposeful racial discrimination, as well as to combat de facto or unintentional racial discrimination. It also requires States to combat structural racial discrimination, which occurs when the combined effect of laws, policies and practices is to undermine human rights on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, even in the absence of explicit prejudice. 7 8 9 10 11 4 See National Human Rights Committee, Fourteenth Annual Report: 2018 – Human Rights Situation in Qatar (Doha). Available at https://nhrc-qa.org/en/themencode-pdf-viewer-sc/?file=https://nhrcqa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/NHRC-ANNUAL-REPORT-2018ENGLISH.pdf&settings=111111111&lang=en-US#page=&zoom=auto. National Human Rights Committee, shadow report submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (2018). Available from https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno= INT%2fCERD%2fIFN%2fQAT%2f32871&Lang=en. CERD/C/QAT/17-21, para. 17. CERD/C/QAT/CO/17-21, para. 10 and CEDAW/QAT/CO/2, para. 20. CERD/QAT/CO/17-21, para. 5.