RIGHTS: Pre-Conference Negotiations on Racism Wear On

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Jun 2 2001 (IPS) - Delegates from the international community could not agree on a draft of the final declaration for the United Nations World Conference against Racism Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, and decided to extend the negotiating period in order to hammer out a definitive text.

The preparatory committee’s final period of sessions officially ended Friday in Geneva with little to show for the delegates’ efforts, which some participants interpret as a threat to the success of the conference to be held in Durban, South Africa, Aug 31-Sep 7.

The delays affecting the talks were in part the result of procedural questions, but the decisive factor was the profound differences of opinion on colonialism and slavery, and on formulas for reparations for the harm they have caused.

Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, stressed that the delays in the preparations for the anti-racism conference are a serious matter. In her closing speech for the committee’s sessions Friday, Robinson commented that the few advances made were achieved with alarming slowness.

In an attempt to make up for lost time, the governments participating in the talks called for the negotiations to continue, but involving a group limited to 21 countries, and scheduled another preparatory session for the full committee in Geneva for Jul 30 to Aug 10.

Ideally, the conference in Durban is to conclude with the consensus approval of a declaration about the phenomena of racism and other forms of intolerance and about a plan of action, including measures to prevent and eliminate these social ills.

But the process of drafting the final document has turned out to be extremely difficult, particularly because of the European countries represented on the preparatory committee have tended not to agree with the African countries’ assertion that slavery and colonialism should be classified as “crimes against humanity” and that compensation for these crimes are due.

The president of the latest session of the committee, Gilberto Vergne Saboia, a Brazilian diplomat, observed that at the end of two weeks of discussions, the delegates had been able to overcome their differences on procedures, clashes that had obstructed progress in the talks.

The process of drawing up the Durban document exposed divisions between the delegations involved. There were imbalances in the regional focuses and the declarations approved by the regional preparatory committees contained substantial disparities, Vergne explained.

The methodology chosen by the delegates this week entrusts a working group made up of four representatives from each region, presided by South Africa – host of the international anti-racism conference -, to wrap up the debate and to draw up the final document.

This group of 21 countries is slated to meet in Geneva Jun 5-15 to confront the “political difficulties and the more delicate issues, such as victims and compensation,” said Vergne, who serves as the Human Rights Secretary at Brazil’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Several European nations, especially the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal, are opposed to categorising slavery and colonialism as “crimes against humanity,” as the African bloc of countries is seeking.

Some delegates argue that in the slave era, the practice was legal and that it was begun by Arab merchants. The notion of trafficking in people as a “crime against humanity” is a modern concept that cannot be applied retroactively, according to the Europeans.

The Arab nations, meanwhile, are demanding that the final document condemn two “Holocausts” – that perpetrated by the Nazis against the Jewish people, and the expulsion of Palestinians and the colonisation of Palestine executed by Israel.

The Arab bloc’s insistence on mentioning “the Holocausts”, in plural, “is unacceptable,” stated Jean-Daniel Vigny, chief of the Swiss delegation.

As far as the reparations demanded by the African countries, the United States and the European countries have expressed willingness only to grant indemnification through development assistance.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), meanwhile, protested that they had been allowed only scant participation in the preparatory sessions in Geneva for the Durban conference.

Erica Starriford, speaking on behalf of all the NGOs present, said that these rights groups can contribute to mitigating the differences of opinion between governments and the victims of racism.

The group of 21 countries to continue the debate on the Durban Declaration, led by South Africa, is made up of Barbados, Brazil, Chile and Mexico, representing Latin America and the Caribbean.

The African bloc will be Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia. “Western Europe and other states” will be represented by Canada, France, Sweden and the United States.

Eastern Europe is to be represented by the Czech Republic, Croatia, Macedonia and Russia. The nations from Asia participating in the talks will be India, Iran, Pakistan and Iraq.