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RIGHTS:
U.N. Plans Database to Monitor Racism
UNITED
NATIONS, Aug 30 (IPS) - The United Nations plans to establish a
database to monitor acts of racism and xenophobia worldwide.
RIGHTS:
Germany Concerned about Racism Here and Now *
BERLIN,
Aug 30 (IPS) - Germany is familiar with the larger issues that have
been threatening to stymie the U. N. Conference on Racism, which
opens in Durban, South Africa at the end of the month. After years
of debate and controversy, the government together with big business
this year set up a 5 billion U.S. dollar fund to compensate slave
labourers forced to toil in factories during the Nazi era.
RIGHTS-INDIA:
Study on Caste's Origins in Race Undercuts Govt Stance
NEW
DELHI, Aug 29 (IPS) - New genetic evidence that caste originated
in race discounts the Indian government's protestations that caste
is not race and therefore ought not be discussed at the U.N. conference
on racism that starts at Durban, South Africa on Friday .
RIGHTS:
Caste Discrimination is Pervasive - Report
WASHINGTON,
Aug 29 (IPS) - The World Conference Against Racism, starting Friday
in Durban, South Africa, should shine a harsh light on caste discrimination,
which affects hundreds of millions of people around the world, says
Human Rights Watch (HRW).
RIGHTS:
U.N. Head Seeks Common Ground on Divisive Racism Meet
UNITED
NATIONS, Aug 28 (IPS) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says he
is hopeful that, current deep divisions notwithstanding, delegates
to the World Conference Against Racism will be able to finalise
a declaration acceptable to the world body's 189 member states.
RIGHTS:
U.S. Rules Out Powell's Attendance at World Racism Meet
WASHINGTON,
Aug 28 (IPS) - In another sign of the growing estrangement between
the United States and most of the rest of the world, the State Department
has confirmed that Secretary of State Colin Powell will not attend
the World Conference Against Racism and warned that Washington may
not participate at all.
RIGHTS:
France Ill at Ease Over Anti-Racism Conference
PARIS,
Aug 28 (IPS) - France, a colonial power until the 1960s, is ill
at ease over the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), scheduled
to open Friday in Durban, South Africa, say political analysts and
anti-racism activists.
RIGHTS-SOUTH
AFRICA: Labour Solidarity Confronts Race
JOHANNESBURG,
Aug 27 (IPS) - The World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), due to
begin in the port town of Durban Friday, comes at a time of growing
shop-floor unity between South Africa's black and white workers
.
RIGHTS-LATAM:
Nobel Laureate, Mendicant Know Discrimination Well*
MEXICO
CITY, Aug 27 (IPS) - Inés Quezada, who scrapes out a living
for her three children panhandling on the streets of Mexico City,
and Guatemalan Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchú have
both lived a life marked by discrimination, as indigenous women
in Latin America .
RIGHTS-SRI
LANKA: State Discrimination a Fact of Life for Tamils*
COLOMBO,
Aug 27 (IPS) - The lack of medical care in the war-torn Wanni in
northern Sri Lanka forced Mekala (not her real name) to head south
for treatment. But this journey to Colombo exposed her to the way
the government treats members of her community, the minority Tamils
MIDDLE
EAST: Triple Prejudice - Woman, Domestic Worker, Asian
BEIRUT
(IPS) - The story goes that some years ago, the wife of the Philippines'
ambassador to Lebanon was swimming at a private sports club. The
lifeguard on duty asked her to get out, saying domestic help were
not allowed in the pool
AUSTRALIA:
Discrimination Harms Aborigines' Quality of Life*
SYDNEY
(IPS) - When Australian Aborigine track star Cathy Freeman lit the
flame at the Summer Olympics here last year, many of her countrymen
took the gesture as Australia's proud acknowledgement of its indigenous
peoples.
JAPAN:
Descendants of 'Outcasts' Battle Stigma of Old
TOKYO
(IPS) - When her husband found out that Tetsuko had an ancestry
of 'burakumin' or 'hamlet people', he packed up and left, saying
he no longer wanted to be associated with her and their children.
THAILAND:
Hilltribes Still Battling Discrimination
CHIANG
MAI, Thailand (IPS) - An April report by a Thai newspaper, accusing
one of the country's hilltribe minorities of planning to break away
and form their independent state, came as no surprise to these ethnic
groups.
INDIA: Slavery
Amidst Modernity
GURGAON,
India (IPS) - This city's resemblance to American suburbia is intentional.
The rolling lawns, lush golfing fairways and well-appointed housing
estates called 'Malibu Towne' and 'Beverly Park' ensure high returns
for property developers.
RIGHTS-ASIA: Govts
Seek to Mask Discrimination against Refugees*
BANGKOK,
Aug 23 (IPS) - Refugees' rights may be marginalised in the final
document to come out of a U.N. conference against racism this month
in Durban, South Africa, say human rights activists .
RIGHTS-LABOUR:
Black Workers Threatened in U.S. Trial
CHARLESTON,
USA, Aug 21 (IPS) - Five dockworkers are to stand trial here next
month on riot charges stemming from a year-old incident. Their ordeal
has become a symbol of the war waged by the U.S. state of South
Carolina against unions in general and black workers in particular.
ECONOMY-U.S.: Wage Racism Affects
the Wealthy
WASHINGTON,
Aug 20 (IPS) - They wear silk suits, drive expensive cars, and exude
the self-assurance of the well heeled but at the top of the U.S.
wage ladder, black men generally stand a few rungs below their white
counterparts, according to a new study.
RIGHTS:
Efforts Underway to Recruit Racist Groups for the UN Meet
JOHANNESBURG, Aug 17 (IPS) - The Non-governmental Organisation
(NGO) Forum of the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) is trying
to recruit groups - perceived to be racist - for the meeting, despite
reservations from some international NGOs. ''We would like them
to attend because we believe we should not have a situation where
we preach to the converted,'' explains the director of the NGO Forum
secretariat, Moshe More. He believes the Forum can convince alleged
racists to change their ways.
RIGHTS: Groups Goad U.S. on
Racism Meet, Vow Participation
UNITED
NATIONS, Aug 16 (IPS) - A coalition of U.S. civil rights organisations
Thursday chided the United States for threatening to boycott an
upcoming U.N. conference against racism and vowed to participate
with or without their government.
RIGHTS-CANADA: Changes in Welfare
Rules Deemed Discriminatory
TORONTO,
Aug 6 (IPS) - Canadian employers have long used literacy tests to
discriminate against immigrants, minorities, and the poor. Now,
the country's most populous and ethnically diverse province is proposing
to use the tests as a requirement for receiving welfare, or social
assistance.
RIGHTS:
U.S. NGOs Agree to Attend UN Conference on Racism
JOHANNESBURG,
Aug 6 (IPS) - While the U.S. government may be prevaricating on
whether it will attend the UN World Conference Against Racism later
this month, progressive American civil society is not. About 2,000
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from the United States have
registered for the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Forum of
the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) to be held in Durban,
South Africa, from Aug 28.
RIGHTS-SOUTH
AFRICA: Black Migrants Face the Worst Xenophobia
JOHANNESBURG,
Aug 6 (IPS) - For its history of discrimination, one would have
expected post-apartheid South Africa to have been a society more
tolerant of migrants. Instead, it has become one of Africa's more
xenophobic countries where attacks on foreigners have become so
commonplace that they barely afford a mention on the media.
CULTURE-SOUTH
AFRICA: Cape Town Looks to Exploit Slave History
CAPE
TOWN, Jun 30 (IPS) - The greatest monument to slavery in this city
is the telephone directory, where the origins of many of its citizens
can be seen in names given to their forebears by slave owners. "Many
slaves were give biblical names or named after the months of the
year," explains Ramzie Abrahams of the South African Cultural
History Museum, "Today we can recognise those names in the
telephone directory."
RIGHTS:
US Groups, Govt at Odds Over Reparations for Racism
WASHINGTON,
Jul 23 (IPS) - A leading US human rights group is calling for the
upcoming world conference against racism to approve a process by
which reparations for slavery, racial discrimination and other extreme
forms of racism can be assessed.
RIGHTS:
Indigenous Peoples of the World Unite for their Rights
QUITO,
May 4 (IPS) - More than 150 indigenous leaders from throughout the
world meet next Monday through Friday in Panama to hash out strategies
in defence of their rights and discuss integration processes like
the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
RIGHTS-INDIA:
Elites Sweep Caste Issue under the Rug, Say Dalits
NEW
DELHI, May 3 (IPS) - India's long-suffering Dalits, or people considered
untouchable by high-caste Hindus, are demanding that their problems
be heard at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism,
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR)
later this year.
RIGHTS:
NGOs Seek Gender Perspective to Racism Conference
UNITED
NATIONS, Apr. 1 (IPS) - A coalition of 40 international non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) is demanding that the upcoming World Conference
against Racism (WCAR) give high priority to the issue of gender
and racial discrimination.
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