Verene Shepherd appointed chair of CERD

The Centre for Reparation Research (CRR) at UWI, Mona, Jamaica, has announced that its director, Prof Verene A Shepherd, has been appointed chair of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

CERD is the UN's oldest treaty body, and the committee implements the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Shepherd, whose candidacy was supported by Caricom, is the first Caricom/Jamaican citizen to be a member of CERD and to serve as chair. She has been a member of the committee since 2016, winning the highest number of votes among those who competed for a seat on the CERD twice in a row. This is the first time that the social historian and reparations advocate will serve as chair of the committee.

UWI said in a release that Shepherd brings expertise in administration, history, gender studies, migration studies, reparation and human rights to the position.

She was also a member of the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (WGEPAD) from 2010-2015, then chair from 2012-2014, when she helped to draft the programme of activities for the UN’s International Decade for People of African Descent from 2015-2024.

Shepherd assumed chairmanship of the CERD on April 11, for two years.