RIGHTS: Final Appeal to Resolve Differences on Racism

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Jul 27 2001 (IPS) - The potential failure of the World Conference against Racism would aggravate divisions and inequalities in today’s globalising world, warned United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, Friday.

But the success of the conference, scheduled for Aug 31 to Sep 7 in Durban, South Africa, would help calm frustrations with the current model of economic globalisation, expressed by activists in a movement begun at the 1999 ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation in the US city of Seattle, and manifest in Genoa, Italy, last week during the Group of Eight Summit.

It would prove that the global community can work together “to address fundamental values and in fact make progress,” said Robinson.

These motives have prompted recognition in the world’s highest political arenas of the increasing importance of hammering out compromises to ensure the success of the UN-sponsored World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

The preparations for the international meeting have been bogged down by profound differences on the matters of possible compensation for the damages caused by slavery and colonialism, and on whether – and how – to include the Middle East crisis on the agenda.

High Commissioner Robinson, who is also acting as the conference’s secretary general, did not rule out the possibility that these discrepancies could sink the Durban meeting, which has been billed as key to the current global fight against racism.

The controversial question of Zionism, which Arab countries seek to include on the conference agenda by equating it with racism, has apparently been settled.

Robinson did not express an opinion on the issue of reparations for slavery and colonialism, but in contrast, she said “very clearly and very openly: it is not appropriate in our preparations for Durban to reopen the issue of Zionism as racism. It was dealt by the United Nations in 1991.”

Zionism is a movement dating back to the late 19th century that sought to establish a Jewish state in Palestine, the Jews’ biblical homeland.

In the debate on the final declaration for the Durban conference, some delegates sought to use the term “Holocaust” – nearly universally recognised as referring to the genocide of millions of Jews by the Nazi regime in Germany – to describe all kinds of ethnic or race based massacres.

The representatives, for the most part from Arab or Islamic countries, proposed including “Holocaust” in lower case and plural forms.

The negotiators involved in drafting the Durban conference’s final declaration and programme of action – to be approved by conference delegates – have made important progress on that question, Robinson said.

The High Commissioner pointed out that she had discussed the Zionism question with the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Yasser Arafat, in Lusaka earlier this month.

Arafat “said he wanted a successful outcome in Durban… and understands that if there is an attempt to revive Zionism as racism we will not have a successful conference,” said Robinson, former Irish president.

On the matter of slavery and colonialism, the United States and the European Union have accepted the need to recognise past injustices and exploitation. In that sense, the gap between the industrial North and the developing South has been reduced, she said.

However, Washington continues to be at odds with the draft text’s references to possible compensation for slavery, as US Secretary of State Colin Powell made clear in a recent meeting with Robinson.

Powell’s participation in Durban will depend on the result of the talks to be held in Geneva Jul 30 to Aug 10, the last chance to resolve differences before the World Conference against Racism.

Diplomatic sources who requested anonymity said that, so far, there are very few high-level officials from the member countries who have confirmed their attendance at the conference.

Robinson herself acknowledged that “governments have been slower than usual” in designating their representatives for Durban.

The South African government, as the event’s host, has invited 31 heads of state. Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will attend the meeting with his current status as chief of the Group of Eight (G-8), consisting of the seven most industrialised countries, plus Russia.