HUMAN RIGHTS: Asia Preparatory Meeting Against Racism a Success

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Feb 23 2001 (IPS) - Six months before the World Conference Against Racism, the drafts of the final declaration and action plans approved by the four regions – Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe – indicate that “common ground” has been reached on perhaps 80 percent of the proposals.

The documents approved at the four regional preparatory conferences, the proposals set forth by expert seminars and the documents adopted by the two previous world conferences add up to “a very significant action-oriented practical program,” said United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson.

Nevertheless, the texts to be presented in Durban, South Africa, where the UN World Conference Against Racism and Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance will run from Aug 31 to Sep 7, still show “significant differences,” which are political in nature, she added.

Robinson said the aim was to come up with a vigorous final declaration, accompanied by a realistic action plan and a review mechanism.

The High Commissioner said she was satisfied with the outcome of the last regional preparatory gathering, the Asian meeting, which met this week in Tehran, Iran.

The European meeting was held in the Austrian city of Salzburg in October; the Americas gathering took place in Santiago, Chile in December; and the African meeting was held in January, in Dakar, Senegal.

Robinson said that despite “a number of difficulties which we addressed and surmounted,” the Tehran conference “was in fact very good and constructive.”

One of the problems that emerged in the Iranian capital was ensuring the full participation of all accredited non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The first hurdle to arise were the objections raised by one country to participation by the NGO World View International. Robinson protested that the barring of an NGO accredited with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) was simply unacceptable, and in the end, the representatives of the NGO took part in the deliberations.

However, the delegations of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and the Bahai International Community were not so fortunate. Although no objections were raised, the representatives did not obtain visas, despite a formal protest arguing that the situation was “not in the spirit of the regional gatherings,” filed by Robinson with Iran’s Foreign Relations Ministry.

Another difficulty arose during an NGO forum held prior to the preparatory meeting itself, when several female delegates of foreign organisations objected to Iranian laws which require that women wear headscarves.

Several representatives of foreign NGOs urged Robinson to organise the meeting in a space where women would not have to use headscarves, or else to rule out Tehran as the venue for the meeting.

Robinson explained that the decision of where to hold the preparatory meeting was up to the group of Asian countries, and that the use of headscarves was not a question of custom, but a strict law that provides for penalties, including prison sentences, for breaking the law or even criticising it.

During her stay in Tehran, Robinson herself wore a headscarf, “because as High Commissioner it would be entirely inappropriate to be in breach of the law of a country that I was visiting,” she said.

On her return, she told a press conference in Geneva that she had “made the point that as an individual I never wear hats or scarves, so it is not something that I enjoy doing, but that I respected the fact that it wasn’t just a matter of respect for a custom, it is a law of the land that is strictly applied.”

On Monday, when the inter-governmental Asian meeting opened, a conservative newspaper in Tehran published a photo showing several women participating in the NGO forum without headscarves.

Robinson said it was a “pity” that conservative sectors had taken advantage of the episode, and added that she hoped it would not lead to “further difficulties.”

The UN official said Iranian women participating in the NGO forum were hurt by the incident, and pointed out to her that in their country women voted, 44 women were elected to parliament in the last elections, women held seats on the cabinet, and 60 percent of university students were women.

“So, in comparison with a number of countries in the region, they have made a lot of progress,” said Robinson, who added that the Iranian delegates told her that the question of the headscarf was “an important part of their culture.”