RIGHTS: U.N. Takes First Step Toward World Racism Conference

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 22 1999 (IPS) - The United Nations is taking preliminary steps toward hosting a major international conference on one of the most politically sensitive issues of the day: racism.

Under-Secretary-General Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, says that a Working Group will begin the preparatory process in Geneva this week.

She told reporters here Friday that she was putting the highest priority on the conference – scheduled to take place sometime in 2001 – because many of the contemporary conflicts are due primarily to racist and ethnic tensions.

Robinson said she deeply regretted that the conference – which is expected to be a significant UN event – “hasn’t got the attention it should.”

“The future of international security and individual human security depended on the international community being able to stamp out racial discrimination,” she added.

Although racism and xenophobia were to have been eliminated after the Holocaust horrors of World War II, they still were very much alive and spreading, she noted. “And yet we see again and again, and we see it in relation to asylum seekers and refugees, and we see it in countries that thought they were quite proud of their pluralistic record.”

Robinson said that “there are more than 200 hate groups on the Internet alone,” she added.

In a special message to commemmorate Sunday’s ‘International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discriminationday’, Sec-Gen Kofi Annan said that if globalisation was creating a world community without borders, “it should also give us a humanity free of the barriers of race.”

“So, on this day, we resolve again to confront the worst in man with the best in man. Racism can, will and must be defeated,” he said.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has already proposed that the conference agenda should include a wide variety of topics – ranging from “current realities in the aftermath of slavery and colonialism, to combatting hate speech and promoting tolerance in the digital age.”

Addressing a seminar in Geneva Friday, Edith Ballantyne, Secretary of the Non-Governmental Organisations Sub-Committee on Racism and Racial Discrimination, said the phenomenon of racial discrimination increasingly was becoming part of society.

“There is a need to tackle the root causes in society,” she said.

Ballantyne said she did not know the extent of the link between racial discrimination and the growing gap between “haves” and “have nots”.

She said she hoped that the World Conference on Racism would raise awareness of the danger of allowing racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance not only to continue, but also to grow into the political field.

“The World Conference should chart a course to stop this trend. There was also a need to obtain the commitment of world leaders to end racism,” she said.

Amid strong US objections, the United Nations decided in December 1997 that it should convene a conference on racism.

“Under recent restrictions on U.S. funding for UN activities, U.S. assessments to the United Nations cannot be used to support expenses associated with a UN World Conference,” U.S. delegate Craig Kuehl told the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee.

Kuehl said it would be a wasteful exercise to use scarce resources on a big talk-fest when the same issue can be discussed by the 185-member General Assembly in New York.

“In our view, the issue of racism, vital as it is, is an example of precisely the kind of theme that could be brought to the General Assembly in a Special Session or otherwise, as a means to enhance its standing and relevance,” he said.

Kuehl said another reason why the U.S. would not support a new international conference is because the United Nations is still far behind in implementing decisions taken at several global conferences since 1990.

“We are still working to implement the outcomes of the recent global conferences, including the results of the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993, which dealt with racism and racial discrimination as a major concern,” he said.

But despite U.S. reservations, the General Assembly adopted a resolution giving its blessings to the proposed conference. The venue, the date and the agenda must still be decided.

One of the obectives of the conference would be to review the progress made in the fight against racism, particularly since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 50 years ago.

The conference would also “formulate concrete recommendations to further action-oriented national, regional and international measures to combat all forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.”