
COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION CONSIDERS REPORT OF GREECE
11 August 2009
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has considered the combined sixteenth to nineteenth periodic reports of Greece on its implementation of the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Presenting the report, Maria Telalian, Legal Advisor, Head of the Section of Public International Law, Legal Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece, said that in 2005, the Greek Parliament had adopted a law on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment regardless of racial or ethnic origin, religious or other beliefs, disability, age or sexual orientation. This law laid down a general regulatory framework for combating discrimination in a wide range of fields and had designated or established bodies for protecting, promoting and monitoring compliance with the principle of non-discrimination. Also, during the last years, a series of measures had been adopted in favour of persons belonging to the Muslim minority in Thrace. On the claims that Greece did not recognize the existence of a national linguistic minority by the name of “Macedonian” she said that these were totally unsubstantiated and that these threatened to create potential tensions over existing identities in the region, as well as serious confusion over that name. Turning to the situation of Roma in Greece, she noted that the Greek Roma had been identified by the State as a vulnerable group, for which special measures and actions plans had been adopted.