Many of the participants who attended the United Nation's World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances (WCAR), held in Durban, South Africa from August 28 through September 7, were just getting back into the United States as the terrorist events of September 11 unfolded.

Without a doubt, there is no way to rationalize, to excuse or to understand the thinking of any individuals or groups that would perpetrate these brutal and heinous attacks. But if we were to take the time to look at the findings that came out of the NGO gathering in Durban, we would get a glimpse of some of the policies and behaviors of the U.S. and other Western nations that unnerve the people of other countries.

U.S. newspapers reported that the primary concerns to the Western nations were the manner in which the NGO document characterized Israel in relation to the Palestinians, and the way it supported the notion that the trans-Atlantic slave trade fit the United Nation's definition of a crime against humanity.

These were key concerns, but not the only ones. A look at the many caucuses and sub-groups of the NGO participants would reflect the broader agenda of the people in attendance. There were caucus groups on the state of education around the world, health care, labor, migrant workers, environmental racism and many more. All focused on the way various nations have allowed discrimination to exist. And all focused on how to bring remedies.

It is important for the world's people to look at the gathering in Durban as a peoples' conference. It is true that the governments were there to develop official documents, but it is also true that the worldwide NGO community wanted to make sure their voices were heard in shaping those documents.

The NGO Forum was a gathering for representatives of the oppressed people of the world. Many have been victims of racism, who wanted to get their voices heard by the governments of the world. Many heard about the plight of others for the first time. It was a learning experience for all in attendance.

The final Governmental Document is not yet available. This paper will therefore focus primarily on the NGO document and the NGO Conference, which began on August 28, and ended as the Governmental Conference began on September 3.

NGO participants were determined to not let the importance of their concerns be shaped by mis?characterizations of the historic oppression faced by them- selves and their ancestors. It did not come as a surprise to them that the major news outlets of the West limited their coverage of the event while trying to downplay its importance.

Preparatory Conferences

The WCAR was preceded by sessions in Geneva, Switzerland, where participants conducted briefing sessions on the major themes that would make up the agenda of the governmental conference and documents.

• Theme 1-Sources, cause, forms and contemporary manifestations of racism, racial discrimination and related intolerance;
  
• Theme 2-Victims of racism, racial discrimination and related intolerance;
  
• Theme 3-Measures of prevention, education and protection aimed at the eradication of racism, racial discrimination and related intolerance at the national, regional and international levels;
  
• Theme 4-Provision for effective remedies, recourses, redress [compensatory] and other measures at the national, regional and international levels;
  
• Theme 5-Strategies to achieve full and effective equality, including international cooperation and enhancement of the United Nations and other international mechanisms in combating racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia.

U.S. Participation

While the presidents of several nations in the southern hemisphere headed their delegations, the U.S. government sent a low-level delegation. Secretary of State Colin Powell did not fulfill this role as had been expected. In the opening days of the Governmental Conference, the U.S. delegation described its presence as that of observer and not as full participant. As issues under the five themes were debated and reviewed in plenary sessions, the U.S. delegates continued to intervene by objecting to language, specifically about Israel and the trans?Atlantic slave trade, but also on sections about indigenous people, colonialism and globalization.

From the beginning, the U.S. has given very little attention to this event, starting with the Clinton Administration. The amount of money put forth to cover some of the cost was only $250,000. The U.S. put forth much more for the 1995 World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China. Further, there had been no pre? Durban briefing organized by the White House for Non?Govern- mental Organizations (NGOs), in the way the U.S. prepared for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women.

NGO Forum Declaration

The WCAR?NGO document represents the voices of the victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The document states that it is:

"Reaffirming that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and inalienable, and that all human beings are entitled to all these rights irrespective of distinction of any kind such as race, class, colour, sex, citizenship, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, language, nationality, ethnicity, culture, religion, caste, occupation, descent, social/economic status or origin, health, including HIV/AIDS, or any other status ..."

The document contains sections on all of the discriminatory categories, based on the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) definition that "racist ideologies are scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust and dangerous, and economically devastating, and that there is no justification for racial discrimination in theory or in practice." (See Excerpts attachment.)

What purpose is served by this or any UN conference?

These UN conferences are important, as the world's governments wrestle with issues of human rights across the globe. One question always asked about the authority and impact of such conferences is: Can the United Nations impact individual country governments? Even before the event took place, some participants claimed it a success, because world governments had to face each other about issues of historic and ongoing racial intolerance within their nations.

The mere fact that this event happened is a success in itself. The fact that the world's people and the world's governments are coming together to talk about racism is important. This is an historic cross- cultural discourse of people of color coming together on common problems. These people of color forged relationships between oppressed cultures and not just through European cultures, in ways that had not happened in past UN conferences on racism held in 1978 and 1983. Another success was the broadening of the racial justice agenda to countries which had not had racial justice on their agendas.
Issues of concern to Africans and African descendants throughout the Americas were forged together to bring strength to the advocacy efforts in their respective countries. The same alliances were formed by those who fall under the headings of Asian, Latin and indigenous persons. These are not absolute categories, since some people fall into more than one.

What is Race?

The way each country has looked at race is central to how issues are identified and addressed by the government and the people of those countries.

For instance, in the U.S. and other countries in the northern hemisphere, an individual has historically been considered Black if there was one-sixteenth African descendant ancestry in the family bloodline. In some southern hemisphere countries, if the individual has a small amount of white ancestry, then that person is often listed as being White.

In fact, as Colombia, Chile and Brazil worked toward submitting their statements to the regional preparatory conferences, they claimed to have no racial problems and did not classify all African descendants as African Descendant. Accordingly, if there is no category of race in their country, then there is no designation of racial identity and therefore no race problems.

The issue of how to describe race is important. Are we one race or several races? Are we one people or several peoples? Is it true that "in Christ there is no east or west"? We know now that our DNA shows we are one race and one people.

For the purposes of the WCAR, we are to be seen through a cultural/sociological lens, which makes us several races and multiple peoples. This latter approach was adopted by the participants because it is more reflective of the way societies and cultures address individuals and groups of individuals - based on color, ethnic origin and other physical characteristics.

Those who would argue for a one-race approach would say that we are one people and do not need affirmative action or other special considerations for anyone who may not have succeeded in society.

Those who argue for a multiple race approach would say that racial problems are a political/sociological construct needing sociological and political remedies that acknowledge perceived or actual differences.

Africans Take the Lead

The fact that the WCAR was held in South Africa, where apart- heid was the norm just a generation ago, served to remind participants that politically sanctioned racism is not a distant practice. There are people living today who faced gov- ernment-sanctioned discrimination.

The delegates from South Africa lead the call for other nations to dismantle racism where it still exists and to acknowledge historic wrong- doings, as they did. This included telling the U.S. and the European Union to admit their complicity in the trans?Atlantic slave trade. Not only did the U.S. government want to avoid any mention of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, or even an apology for its part in slavery; but it was also an embarrassment for the U.S. because of current racial problems like racial profiling, the death penalty, and the voting irregularities of the last presidential election. The U.S. does not yet have a society free of racial injustice.

The U.S. was also under pressure to not talk about Zionism as a form of racism. During the NGO forum, a group of four Orthodox Rabbis marched into the Palestinian Caucus to declare that they did not agree with the Zionist movement overall nor what Israel was doing to the Palestinians in particular. This issue threatened the actual continuation of the conference. But the conference went on.

Sections 99 and 162 of the NGO document raised questions from World Council of Churches (WCC) delegates. The PC(USA) and other WCC delegates have policy supporting the self? determination of the Palestinian people, but for the most part our policies also support the right of Israel to exist, and recognize the historic oppression and genocide that the Jewish people have faced. During the Durban event there were many who wore T?shirts which characterized the Israeli approach to the Palestinians as 'Apartheid.' Needless to say, Jewish conferees did not like having this term applied to Israel.

Participants were also reminded that in parts of Africa, racism is not based on color, but on ethnic identity-xenophobia-fear and hatred of the other. Other key WCAR issues were HIV/AIDS, environmental racism, the criminal justice system, immigration, sex trafficking, children, economic justice, religious tolerance, globalization and more. Governments were challenged with the questions: Is globalization another form of colonialism? Can economic development and trade happen without the oppression of native groups? (See 95 and 97 on Excerpts.)

What About Follow-Up?

As the governments of the world continue to establish laws and policies, all citizens are responsible to advocate for justice within those policies. Advocates can study and become familiar with the following UN Documents and use them as the basis for information, while being in communication with your elected officials. It is never too late to let the President, your Senators and Representatives know that you were disappointed in the U.S. lack of support for this important conference.

• International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD);
  
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICPR);
  
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR);
  
• Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),
  
• Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers? Members of
  their Families (MWC);
  
• Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC);
  
• Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
  Punishment (Convention Against Torture);
  
• International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

To get the full NGO document, go to www.ngoworldconference.org. The full government document will be at: www.un.org/WCAR.
Additional sites of interest include:

• www.ICARE.to
  
• United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights WCAR Web site

WCAR 2001: EXCERPTS FROM THE DECLARATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS NGO FORUM

Caste and Discrimination Based on Descent

84. Work and descent based discrimination, incuding caste discrimination and untouchability, being a historically entrenched, false ideological construct sanctioned by religion and culture, which is hereditary in nature and affects over 300 million people in the Asia Pacific and African regions at the personal, social and structural levels, irrespective of their religious affiliation.

Africans and African Descendants

63. Africans and African Descendants share a common history shaped by the slave trade ,slavery, conquest, colonization and apartheid, all of which constitute crimes against humanity, and a common experience of anti-Black racism. We acknowledge that people of African descent live all over the world, although in many instances they have been renamed, suppressed and marginalized. On every continent African and African Descendants continue
to suffer from racism, discrimination, doctrines and practices of racial supremacy, hate violence and related intolerance. It is the complexity and intersection of these historical and continuing common roots, experiences and struggles to overcome them, that bind Africans and African Descendants together as a world community.

64. We affirm that the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the enslavement of Africans and African Descendants was a crime against humanity and a unique tragedy in the history of humanity, and that its roots and bases were economic, institutional, systemic and transnational in dimension.

65. We further acknowledge the negative impact of the Trans-Saharan and Trans-Indian Ocean Slave Trade and slavery.

66. We recognize that the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and slavery, which constitute crimes against humanity, forced the brutal removal and the largest forced migration in history (over one hundred million), caused the death of millions of Africans, destroyed African civilizations, impoverished African economies and formed the basis for Africa's under-development and marginalization which continues to this date. We acknowledge that Africa was dismembered and divided among European powers, which created Western monopolies for the continued exploitation of African natural resources for the benefit of Western economies and industries.

Reparations

71. Slave-holder nations, colonizers and occupying countries have unjustly enriched themselves at the expense of those people that they enslaved and colonized and whose land they have occupied. As these nations largely owe their political, economic and social domination to the exploitation of Africa, Africans and Africans in the Diaspora they should recognize their obligation to provide these victims just and equitable reparations.

72. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, slavery and colonialism is a crime against humanity because of its abhorrent barbarism, its magnitude, long duration, numbers of people brutalized and murdered and because of their negation of the very essence of humanity of their victims, therefore, reparations programs must be comprehensive enough in addressing all areas of concern including economic, educational, health, land ownership and possession as well as the racially biased systems of administration of justice that brutalize Africans and people of African Descent.

Antisemitism

77. Antisemitism is one of the oldest, most pernicious and prevalent forms of racism which still exists and is even increasing in many areas of the world; recognizing the dehumanization, persecution and genocide of Jews in the Holocaust, as well as other minorities during and before World War II; deeply alarmed by the continued activities of proponents of Holocaust denial and Holocaust revisionism, Holocaust trivialization, Holocaust minimization and by the channeling of racist rhetoric and calls to violence on the Internet; noting with distress that Jewish people still suffer from persisting prejudices and are victims of a deeply rooted antisemitism in many countries throughout the world; distressed by the recent desecration of many Jewish cemeteries, synagogues, and Jewish communal buildings and other property, as well as an increase in harassment and assaults of Jewish people worldwide; convinced of the necessity of more effective measures to address the issue of antisemitism worldwide today in order to counter these phenomena and increase awareness about them.

Gender

119. An intersectional approach to discrimination acknowledges that every person be it man or woman exists in a framework of multiple identities, with factors such as race, class, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, citizenship, national identity, geo-political context, health, including HIV/AIDS status and any other status are all determinants in one's experiences of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerances. An intersectional approach highlights the way in which there is a simultaneous interaction of discrimination as a result of multiple identities.
Colonialism and Foreign Occupation

95. Colonialism represents one of the most serious violations of national sovereignty of states and breach of international law, and in almost all colonial territories serious crimes against humanity were committed by colonial powers.

97. Acknowledging that a foreign occupation which imposes an alien domination and subjugation with the denial of territorial integrity amounts to colonialism (according to the principles of the 'Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples' of the UN General Assembly 1960) and denies the fundamental rights of self determination, independence and freedom of the people under occupation. It also created an environment in which the occupied people are exposed to a wide range of systematic and gross violations of human rights and freedom. We extend our solidarity to the struggles for self?determination for people of Palestine, West Sumatra, Aceh-Sumatra, Bougainville, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, North Cyprus, and other states and indigenous communities including the Kurdish people, the indigenous people in the north east of India and in the north east of Sri Lanka, in Tibet, Kashmir, Bhutan, Mindanao and the non independent countries of the Caribbean, like Puerto Rico and recognize the situation of other people living under foreign occupation in different parts of the world.

Palestinians and Israel

99. Recognizing further that a basic "root cause" of Israel's on going and systematic human rights violations, including its grave breaches of the fourth Geneva Convention 1949 (i.e. war crimes), acts of genocide and practices of ethnic cleansing is a racist system, which is Israel brand of apartheid. One aspect of this Israeli racist system has been a continued refusal to allow the Palestinian refugees to exercise their right as guaranteed by international law to return to their homes of origin. Related to the right of return, the Palestinian refugees also have a clear right under international law to receive restitution of their properties and full compensation. Furthermore, international law provides that those Palestinian refugees choosing not to return are entitled to receive full compensation for all their losses. Israel's refusal to grant Palestinian refugees their right of return and other gross human rights and humanitarian law violations has destabilized the entire region and has impacted on world peace and security.

162. We declare Israel as a racist, apartheid state in which Israel's brand of apartheid as a crime against humanity has been characterized by separation and segregation, dispossession, restricted land access, denationalization , "bantustanization" and inhumane acts.

Indigenous Peoples

140. Indigenous Peoples live in every region of the world, including the Arctic, Africa, Russia, the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Pacific amongst other areas, and everywhere they suffer gross discrimination and marginalization. The belief in the inferiority of Indigenous Peoples, in addition to the lack of consultation on matters that effect them, remains deeply embedded in the legal, economic and social fabric of many States and has resulted in the dispossession and destruction of Indigenous territories and resources, political, religious and social systems.

142. Indigenous Peoples are peoples within the full meaning of international law. Indigenous Peoples have the right to self-determination by virtue of which they freely determine their economic, social, political and cultural development and the inherent right to possession of all of their traditional and ancestral lands and territories. The knowledge and cultures of Indigenous Peoples cannot be separated from their unique spiritual and physical relationships with their lands, waters, resources and territories. The denial or qualification of the self-determination of Indigenous Peoples is racist and lies at the root of Indigenous suffering. Structural racism in past and current manifestations of colonialism, invasion, apartheid, ethnocide and genocide has denied, and continues to deny Indigenous Peoples their fundamental right to self-determination.

144. Racism against Indigenous Peoples also manifests itself in many forms, including: forced and covert displacement; forced assimilation; forced removal of indigenous children from their communities; economic policies which exploit Indigenous resources without Indigenous consent and without returning any benefit to Indigenous communities; the use of sexual violence against Indigenous women as a weapon of war; misinformation and lack of reproductive information, imposition of dangerous contraceptives on Indigenous girls and women, and forced sterilization of Indigenous girls and women; the appropriation of Indigenous intellectual and cultural property, including genetic property , and the use of the images of Indigenous peoples and individuals without their consent.

Roma Nation

175. Anti-Tziganisms is a specific form of racism and racial discrimination against Roma, manifested by stigmatization, flagrant violations of their fundamental human rights, denied access to public services, education, employment, denied participation to decision-making processes at local and central administration levels, persecution, abuse, violence, forced deportation, ethnic cleansing, extermination and ethnocide.

176. Drawing lessons from history, we declare as crimes against humanity the slavery of Roma, the ethnocide / forced assimilation and genocide against Roma and the extermination of Roma during the Holocaust.