THE U.N. WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM
IHRAAM / IHRAAM associated-NGO
Participation
THE U.N. WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM
IHRAAM / IHRAAM associated-NGO
Participation
The World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia
and
Related Intolerance will be held in year 2001. The first Preparatory
meeting for the World Conference will be held from 1-5 May 2000 in Geneva,
Switzerland. This meeting, called PrepCom, will bring together United Nations
experts, government representatives, world leaders, non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) and media from around the world. As an NGO representative, you must
be accredited (registered) to participate in the NGO Forum and to enter
UN building to attend UN
sessions. If you or your organization are interesting in attending
the World Conference under the IHRAAM umbrella, kindly contact ihraam@oocities.com
for further information.
OBJECTIVES OF THE WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM:
In 1997, the United Nations General Assembly agreed to hold a World
Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and
Related
Intolerance. The main objectives of the Conference, as stated in
the
resolution include:
* To review progress made in the fight against racism and reappraise
the
obstacles to further progress in the field and ways to overcome
them;
* To increase the level of awareness about the scourges of
racism and
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance;
* To review the political, historical, economic, social, cultural
and
other factors leading to racism, racial discrimination, and xenophobia;
* To formulate concrete recommendations to further action-oriented
national, regional and international measures to combat all forms
of
racism.
The World Conference will be an important opportunity you to join
the
international community to establish a new approach to racism for
the next
millennium. The agenda is to be action- oriented and focus on practical
measures to eradicate racism, including measures of prevention,
education
and protection and the provision of effective remedies to discrimination.
Themes which will be considered at the World Conference include:
the
prevention of racism through education and the media; issues of
exclusion
and marginalization in multiracial societies where race is largely
defined
by skin color; discrimination based on ethnic divisions; the treatment
of
migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers and displaced persons; the implications
of economic globalization on the achievement of racial equality
worldwide;
the special burdens of people with multiple identities that compound
discrimination, such as race and gender; current realities in the
aftermath of slavery and colonialism; preventive measures, including
early
warning and urgent action procedures; combating hate speech and
hate
crimes; affirmative action; effective remedies and redress mechanisms.
The World Conference will be a unique and important opportunity to
create
a new world vision for the fight against racism in the Twenty-First
Century. The message will be a positive one about the benefits of
diversity and equality in national communities and internationally.
Governments will be encouraged to present at the conference their
"Best
Practices" with respect to implementing the obligations of the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination which most governments have ratified. The debate
will be
organized around specific models of governmental programs to prevent
and
remedy discriminatory practices.
The PrepComs are preparatory meetings to prepare working documents
for the
final World Conference. It is the appropriate forum for NGOs to
highlight
country specific issues such as discrimination against a particular
community in a country or thematic issues such as the experiences
of women
of color facing multiple obstacles. It is crucial for NGOs to fully
participate in the PrepComs to both create awareness and to influence
their governments to make action oriented plans of action to eliminate
racial discrimination.
BACKGROUND MATERIALS FOR THE WORLD CONFERENCE:
The office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has established
a web
page for the World Conference. The web page contains the General
Assembly
resolution which initiated the work toward the World Conference,
the
reports of the High Commissioner and Secretary General, the Report
of the
first sessional Working Group to review the proposal submitted for
the
World Conference, the actual proposals which include four NGO proposals
and papers by the members of the UN Committee on the Elimination
of Racial
Discrimination (CERD), and Reports of the UN Special Rapporteur
on
contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia
and
related intolerance. These documents will greatly help NGOs to understand
the rationale and scope of this conference. Please check this web
page
regularly to get updated information about NGO participation which
the UN
will be starting to add on in fall 1999.
The address of the web page is: http://www.unhchr.ch/
After you open this page, look at the top of the page for the title
"World
Conference Against Racism.....". click there.
At the World Conference, IHRAAM hopes to promote wider understanding
of the relation of international minority rights to what is viewed as "the
race problem" in some multinational states currently practicing forced
assimilation of national minorities. TO access IHRAAM communication to
the UN re the World Conference on Racism [LINK]