The Declaration and the Programme of Action is based
on the understanding that it reflects the regional processes and that the
voices of the victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance must be heard.
1. We, the representatives of local, national and
international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other civil society
groups from around the world gathered in Durban/South Africa during the week of
28 August – 3 September 2001 for the World Conference against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), guided by our commitment in the struggle against
racism and racial discrimination and inspired by the recommendations of the NGO
Forums held in Strasbourg/France, Santiago de Chile/Chile, Dakar/Senegal and
Tehran/Iran and the related sub-regional NGO meetings held in Warsaw/Poland,
Kathmandu/Nepal, Cairo/Egypt and Quito/Ecuador, in preparation for the World
Conference, hereby make the following Declaration:
2.
Solemnly acknowledging all those who suffered for justice
and freedom in South Africa and honouring the memory of those who sacrificed
their lives for the struggle against Apartheid and celebrating the spirit of
the South African people in building a new society free of racism and racial
discrimination and recognising that as a beacon of hope for the world
community.
3. Saluting all those who struggled against racism, racial
discrimination, genocide, slavery, xenophobia and related intolerance,
genocidal practices and all other forms of discrimination and exclusion,
honouring the memory of those who have given their lives for this struggle, and
other struggles against oppression and encouraging and supporting those that
continue to fight against the scourge of racism.
4. Taking note of the fact that the declaration of
Apartheid as a crime against humanity was a progressive step taken by the
international community in its quest to eradicate this inhumane racist state
system, and recalling the positive role of the world community in supporting
the struggle of the South African people against Apartheid.
5.
Recognizing that all human beings are born free
and equal in dignity and rights, and have the capacity to contribute
constructively to the development and well-being of their societies and, that
all human societies ascribed towards shared values of dignity, equality,
justice, tolerance, solidarity, pluralism and multiculturalism.
6. 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, descent, occupation, social/economic status or origin,
health, including HIV/AIDS status, or any other status;
7.
Recognizing the richness of the diversity of cultures, languages,
religions and peoples in the world and the potential within this diversity to
create a world free of racism,
racial discrimination, genocide, slavery, xenophobia and related intolerance,.
8.
Recognizing that racism,
racial discrimination, genocide, slavery, xenophobia and related intolerances
are based on an ideological construct that assigns a certain group of persons a position of political,
economic and social power over others through notions of racial superiority, colour, identity,
dominance purity and majority
status.
9.
Reaffirming the 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 and in practice, anywhere.
10. Recognising the particular importance and role
of the International Criminal Court in the eradication of racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and emphasising the need for
universal ratification
11.
Considering
that the roots of many contemporary manifestations of racism and racial
discrimination can be located in the legacy of the slave trade, slavery,
colonialism and foreign occupation which led to forced transplantation of
peoples, massive dispossession of territories and resources and the destruction
of political, religious and social systems for which acknowledgement and
reparations were never made, and which created historical injustices based on
ideologies of superiority, dominance and purity, the consequences of which
continue to this day.
12.
Acknowledging
that in particular in countries in transition, the growth of aggressive
nationalism and ethnocentrism are expressions of racism and xenophobia not
rooted in the slave –trade but deeply embedded in historical prejudices and
hatred towards ethnic and religious minorities that often lead to large-scale
human rights violations, discrimination and persecution targeting specific
groups such as Jews, Roma, Kurds, people from the Caucasus and Central Asia,
Meskhetian Turks and even frequently resulting in ‘ethnic cleansing’ and crimes
against humanity with elements of genocide, particularly in the former
Yugoslavia and Chechnya.
13. Acknowledging the role played by United Nations
in creating international legal rights and obligations against racism, racial
discrimination, genocide, slavery, xenophobia and related intolerance, we
nevertheless deplore the fact that efforts undertaken by governments and by the
United Nations to implement these instruments and mechanisms are grossly
inadequate, exclude civil society actors and have allowed perpetrators and
accomplices to go unpunished.
14. Appalled by the persistent failure of governments and the
United Nations to address injustices and violations committed by non-state
actors including injustices and violations committed by no-state actors,
including international finance and trade institutions, transnational
corporations, and fundamentalist groups exacerbates and perpetuates racism,
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
15. Appalled by the success and apparent increasing popularity of
certain political parties and other groups that use racist and xenophobic
ideologies in gaining and maintaining political power
16. Recognizing that state racism is often manifested by political and
intellectual elites who exploit the nationalistic and xenophobic sentiments of
the general public for political mobilization and legitimization of their
authority and political power, not only in the traditional blatant ways but
also in new, more covert, institutionalized forms, aggravated by the problem of
denial of the very existence of racism by government officials.
17.
Recognizing that
while all religions are founded on principles that advocate peace, tolerance, non-discrimination, respect and
acceptance of the other, and that freedom of religion, belief and conscience
contribute to the attainment of the goals of world peace, social justice and
mutual understanding among peoples, yet there are situations in which religion
is misused to further political goals that promote racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
18. Considering that racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance are the basis of gross violations of human
rights and hate crimes, create and maintain conflict, and thus hinder
development and constitute a threat to peace and democracy and must be
addressed by all appropriate means, including effective legal mechanisms at all
levels.
19.
Affirming that Indigenous
Peoples are bearers of both collective and individual rights which include
their right to self-determination and to the legitimate exercise of control
over their resources and dominion of their territories on the basis of their
historical and cultural identity and have the right and responsibility to transmit
to future generations their ancestral territories and identity.
20.
Affirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination,
statehood, independence and freedom and the right of the return as stipulated
in UN Resolution 194.
21.
Also
affirming the right to
self-determination of all peoples, including the Hawaiian, Kurdish, Kashmiri,
West Sumatran, West Papuan, Achenese, Sri Lankan Tamils, Tibetans, Roma and Travellers, the
non-independent territories of the Americas, such as Puerto Rico, Martinique
and Guadalupe, calling on the United Nations to devise mechanisms and
procedures that enable the affirmation of that right, and in particular to respect UN Security Council
Resolution 1359/2001 of June 29, 2001 on Western Sahara.
22.
Acknowledging 50
years of ethnic conflict in Sir Lanka which has resulted in death,
disappearances, rape, torture and destruction and affirming the right to self
determination of the Tamil minority.
23.
Recognizing that
certain cultural groups with a distinct identity such as Sikhs, Mohajirs,
Sindhis, Balochs face barriers on a complex interplay of racial, ethnic,
religious and cultural factors
24.
Recognizing
that globalization is a historically uneven process based on colonial and
imperialist integration of the world economy and on maintaining and deepening
unequal power relations between countries and regions of the world that
exacerbates, global inequalities and conditions of poverty and social exclusion
25.
Deeply concerned that
current forms of globalization and policies of international financial and
trade institutions as well as the activities of transnational corporations
prevent the full realization of economic, social and cultural rights of all
peoples, maintain and deepen the social exclusion of groups that are most marginalized
and heighten tension and manifestations of racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance.
26.
Recognizing
that in the context of globalization, discriminatory labour practices
experienced by men and women, youth and children and people with disablilities
and documented and undocumented migrants groups who are already marginalized by
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance which makes
them vulnerable to increased exploitation, poverty, and social exclusion
27. Recognizing the rights of all victims of
slavery racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
to reparations of all forms
28. Recognizing environmental racism as a form of
racial discrimination which refers to exploitation and depletion of natural
resources and any environmental policy, practice, action or inaction that
intentionally or unintentionally, disproportionately harms the health, eco
systems, and livelihood of nations, communities, groups, or individuals, and in
particular the poor.
29.
Acknowledging
that situations of armed conflict are often generated by racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerances and that such conflicts in
turn perpetuate racism and related forms of discrimination, emphasise that war
crimes must urgently be prosecuted at the national level notwithstanding the
establishment of the International Criminal Court.
30.
Noting also
with concern that armed conflicts create an environment conducive to heightened
militarization, violence against women, young people and children in particular
the girl child, and persons with disabilities, which result in situations
of sexual slavery, rape and forced pregnancies. The
proliferation and prevalence of armed conflict throughout the world,
particularly in Africa where three
quarters of the continent is currently experiencing a state of war or some form
of armed conflict, is leading to the large-scale displacement of persons,
massive outflows of refugees and internally displaced persons and increasing militarization
of millions of children and young people and demand the granting of effective
protection to these groups and respect for international humanitarian law.
31.
Denouncing the
direct role played by certain transnational corporations and governments which
lead to an increasing militarization
and nuclearization on a global scale and in particular concerned about
trafficking and trading in arms, the proliferation of the arms and armaments
industries, the production of destructive weapons including landmines and small
arms at the cost of spending on social infrastructure, all of which violated
the humanitarian laws of war and contribute to the perpetuation of racism,
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and consequences
thereof.
32.
Recognizing
the suffering experienced by many people as a result of the use of weapons of war including weapons of
mass destruction, small arms, land mines against civilians
33.
Acknowledging
the violations of the human rights of the people of Vieques, Puerto Rico
because of the actions of the US Navy, we demand an end to these military
practices and return of occupied land to the people of Puerto Rico and payment
of reparation to the victims
34.
Condemning
the US blockade of Cuba as a violation of the sovereignty of the Cuban people
which results in gross violations of their human rights.
35.
Denouncing
strategies of some international agreements and international cooperation, such
as the Andean Initiative and the Free Trade Area of the Americas project, as
well as the Plan Colombia, which, under the guise of carrying out a war against
drugs promotes large-scale internal displacement, accelerates dispossession and
aggression against the Indigenous, Afro-descendants and peasant communities,
leading to the denial of human rights including the right to
self-determination, causing environmental degradation and the growth of
militarization in the region
36. Recognizing that the persistence of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerance affirms the need for an inter-sectional analysis of
discrimination which would address forms of multiple discrimination.
37. Noting that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerance create serious obstacles
to the full enjoyment of human rights and result in
aggravated discrimination against communities who already face discrimination
on the basis of class, colour, sex, gender, age,
disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, language, nationality,
ethnicity, culture, religion or
caste, descent, work, socio-economic status or origin, health, including
HIV/AIDS status, or any other status.
38. Recognizing homophobia as a particular form of discrimination and a
form of multiple discrimination that makes gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgendered persons even more
vulnerable to all forms of violence including hate crimes and racialised
violence.
39. Affirming that multiple forms of discrimination against women limit or negate
women’s potential for the full enjoyment and exercise of their human rights and
fundamental freedoms in all spheres of life, that patriarchal social structures
reinforce all forms of discrimination against women particularly those with
disabilities, and that racism also creates other forms of patriarchal
subordination of women.
40. Gravely concerned, that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance adversely affect the full realisation of rights of the rights of everyone to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,
41. Recognising that people infected with or presumed to be infected with HIV/AIDS suffer serious forms of discrimination and exploitation., exacerbated by the WTO regulations which deny access to affordable treatments.
42. Recognising the important role played by young
people in the preparation and the follow up of the WCAR and in adopting the
Plan of Action submitted at the Youth Summit of the WCAR , acknowledge that
young people are affected by multiple forms of discrimination which limit the
full realisation of human rights, resulting in denial of their right to
self-determination thus limiting their full and active political, economic, and
social participation.
43. Recognizing that the slave trade, slavery and colonialism as crimes
against humanity reinforced by apartheid and other policies of racial
segregation and that the failure and refusal to acknowledge and make
reparations for these crimes against humanity have played a critical role in
entrenching racism, racial discrimination, anti-black hostilities, xenophobia
and related intolerance. Consequently, African and African descendants are
prime victims of deep seated racist and prejudicial practices which are
manifest in current day exclusion and marginalization which they face in the
African Diaspora and in Africa, which has paid and continues to pay a heavy
price for this.
44. Recognizing that Asians and Asian Descendants
including ethnic and religious minorities in Asian countries have experienced
and continue to experience specific forms of racism and xenophobia from the
legacy of slavery, colonialism, Apartheid, indentured servitude, internment,
and exclusionary migration laws.
45. Concerned about increasing antisemitism which
leads to violence and hate crimes against Jewish people in particular and
passivity of governments in many countries with regard to prosecuting
perpetrators of criminal hate acts.
46. Concerned that Anti-Arab racism is another form
of anti-semitism and Islamaphobia that have led to violence and hate crimes.
47.
Denouncing
the pervasive nature of hate crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide and other
crimes against humanity including
wars committed against members of communities that face colonialism, racism,
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and those who
advocate for social change and self-determination
48.
Affirming
that members of far too many minority communities, including national, ethnic,
religious and linguistic minorities are collectively and individually subject
to all forms of racism and institutionalized discrimination including denial of
citizenship, exclusion from political participation, denial of access to
resources and a dignified standard of living, political repression and
genocidal practices because some nation-state structures that are majoritarian
deny the rights of minority communities including the right of
self-determination.
49.
Recognizing
that the Chechen people still suffer large-scale violations of human rights and
international humanitarian standards we stress that military operations in
Chechnya are accompanied by a wide-scale hate campaign towards the Chechens, which in
particular results in mass persecution and discrimination against people originating from the region of
the Caucasus when they travel or reside outside their region.
50.
Acknowledging
that the Roma, who are a non-territorial nation, dispersed in a worldwide diaspora are denied their right to
a cultural identity, are disadvantaged and experience discrimination,
persecution, stigmatization, and violence on the basis of their social origin
and identity.
51. Recognizing that Travelers experience comparable
levels of racism and oppression to Roma throughout the world and in particular
to the denial of their social, cultural, political and economic rights.
52.
Recognizing that the caste system discriminates
against and enables segregation of communities on the basis of work and
descent, such as Dalits in South Asia, the Buraku people of Japan, the Osu and
Oru people of Nigeria and the Griots of Senegal and other communities resulting
in flagrant violations of human rights and dignity, with women and children of
these communities being
particularly vulnerable to barbaric forms of violence.
53. Deploring the lack of policies and programs that
effectively address the inter-sectionality of the multiple forms of
discrimination particularly faced by people with disabilities.
54. Noting with deep concern that racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance against documented and undocumented
migrants, migrant workers and members of their families, refugees, asylum seekers,
stateless and displaced persons is structural and systematic in character, is
reflected in discriminatory legislation, policies and social and corporate
practices, and manifest in both subtle and overt acts of hostility and violence
against specific groups on the basis of differences in language, customs,
religions, culture language, origin, customs and position in international
power relations
55. Recognizing that xenophobia is a particular
form of discrimination and intolerance which describes prejudices, practices,
attitudes and behaviour that oppresses and rejects, excludes and vilifies
persons who are already discriminated against because they are, or are presumed
to be, foreigners or people of different ethnic, religious, linguistic or
cultural background.
56. Gravely concerned about the failure of states to
protect the rights of all those living within their borders especially in the
face of increasing xenophobic acts against migrants, migrant workers and
members of their family, refugees, asylum seekers, trafficked, stateless and
internally displaced persons and in particular concerned about oppressive and
restrictive immigration policies, the criminalization, stigmatisation,
targeting and victimisation of these groups.
57. Noting with concern the increasing numbers of refugees,
asylum seekers, stateless and internally displaced persons, including those
displaced by economic processes and developmental projects most of whom are
women and children, whose rights are not fully and appropriately protected by
the relevant international, regional and sub-regional legal instruments or
national legislation, and who consequently are more vulnerable to racism,
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in the receiving
regions and countries
58. Recognizing that trafficking in persons as a
contemporary form of slavery based on patriarchal notions of sexuality and
exacerbated by economic inequalities which primarily affects women and children
of poor and marginalized communities and which takes place within and across
many countries across the world including in Mauritania, Sudan, Cameroon and
Niger.
59. Recognizing the need to give special
consideration to the concerns and needs of victims of racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance including women, children,
young people, persons with disabilities, people of African descent, Indigenous
Peoples, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons, disabled persons,
the impoverished, and persons living in situations or countries in conflict,
who are discriminated against by the criminal justice system, as well as to the
incarceration and withholding of legal rights and services to asylum seekers
and refugees.
60. Recognizing that victims of slavery, genocide, racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance have the right to effective
civil remedies and criminal sanctions against government agencies , corporate
institutions and their employees We also recognize that these victims, for
victims have been disparately and , disproportionately targeted, prosecuted and
sentenced due to their race, caste, nationality, ethnic background, religious
beliefs or other differences.
61.
Drawing inspiration from the slogan of the WCAR,
‘UNITED TO COMBAT RACISM: EQUALITY, JUSTICE AND DIGNITY’ and hopeful that the
World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related
Intolerance will affirm the commitment of the United Nations to developing
practical, action oriented measures and strategies to combat racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
62.
Convinced that the World Conference against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance will be an important
occasion for healing, reconciliation and emancipation of the victims of racism,
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and encouraged by
the growing universal movement driven by civil society committed for the
creation of a world free from racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerances.
DECLARATION OF THE NGO FORUM
AFRICANS AND AFRICAN DESCENDANTS
63. Africans and African Descendants
share a common history shaped by the slave trade, slavery, conquest,
colonisation 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 recognise 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.
67. We recognise also that part of the
Trans-Saharan Slave Trade continues unabated to this day, despite international
agreements that condemn slavery, and that the trafficking of African men, women
and children for forced labour and enslavement is still ongoing in Cameroon,
Mauritania, Niger and Sudan whilst
these and other forms of involuntary servitude of Africans and African
Descendants have resulted in substantial and lasting economic, political and
cultural damage to the continent.
This form of exploitation is particularly damaging to African and
African Descendant women, who are still victims of sexual trafficking and sexual
exploitation.
68. We condemn the Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade, slavery and colonization as crimes against humanity. Whereas Western
economic institutions criminally exploited Africans and their descendants, used
criminally transported people of Africa as chattel and continued to breed
Africans as chattel. Post-slavery African Descendants have endured official and
de facto segregative policies of governments, affecting political, economic,
educational, cultural and social rights, causing and legitimising theft of land
and racial violence. African Descendants have suffered the loss of their
culture, identities, and languages and have been victimised by the perpetuation
of negative stereotypes, psychological damage, racial discrimination, economic
disadvantage and the criminalisation of their peoples. These conditions
have uniquely impacted African and
African Descendant women whose bodies, familial roles and reproductive ability
have been used as a tool of oppression and exploited for the production of
economic wealth and whose forced labour under inhumane circumstances and the
use of specific negative stereotypes all have been and continue to be used to
maintain the subordinate position of African and African Descendant women at
the bottom of the social, economic, cultural and political system.
69. We recognise that the development of
Africa has been greatly impeded by the global imbalances in power created by
the slave trade, slavery and colonialism as crimes against humanity and other
forms of exploitation and is maintained and extended particularly by neo-colonial
economic policies and practices including the pillage of human and material
resources of Africa and the draining of its financial resources by foreign debt
services. The legacy of these
abhorrent crimes is manifested in wars, displacements and the precarious
socio-economic situation in which Africans find themselves.
70.
Recognising that
the Trans-Atlantic, Trans-Saharan and Trans-Indian Ocean slave trade and
slavery constitute crimes against humanity and were based on economic
exploitation, doctrines of racial supremacy and racial hatred and have
subjected Africans and African descendants, Indigenous Peoples and many others
to the most horrific denigration of their being including classification as
sub-humans and chattel, subjugation to rape, forced labour, branding, lashings,
murder, maiming, destruction of their languages, cultures, psychological and spiritual well-being
resulting in structural subordination which continues to the present.
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.
73. The Trans-Saharan and Trans-Indian
Ocean Slave Trades and slavery must also be acknowledged and recognised as
crimes against humanity, which brutalised communities and stripped people of
their dignity, and for which those communities must receive justice and
redress.
74. There is an unbroken chain from the
slave trade, slavery, colonialism, foreign occupation, apartheid, racial
discrimination and the contemporary forms of structural racism that maintain
barriers to the full and equal participation of the victims of racism and
discrimination in all spheres of public life;
75. The enslavement of Indigenous
Peoples, the appropriation of their lands and exploitation of their resources
must be acknowledged and repaired and the historic precedents for reparations
to the victims of gross violations of human rights should be applied to them;
76.
Victims of
declared and undeclared wars throughout the world have had their human rights
violated because of their race, ethnicity and the intersection of race,
ethnicity and gender and disability and are in need of reparation;
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
channelling 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.
78.
Antisemitism
remains a pervasive and ingrained form of religious discrimination and Jewish
people are increasingly a racialized minority; recognizing that Jewish
populations and institutions continue to be targets of threats and acts of
violence in countries around the world, and documented overt acts of
antisemitic harassment and vandalism are on the rise; alarmed that extremist
groups are proliferating at an alarming rate and propagating antisemitic and
racist views and hate propaganda, increasingly on the Internet; deeply troubled
by the electoral successes of far right parties, with an increasing presence in
coalition governments; profoundly concerned that in many countries in the world,
Jewish people live in fear, frequently terrorized by extremist groups, and
discriminated against in employment, education, in the media and social
services. ,
ARAB AND
MIDDLE EAST
79.
Arabs as a
Semitic people have also suffered from alternative forms of anti semitism,
manifesting itself as anti Arab discrimination and for those Arabs who are
Muslim, also as Islamophobia.
80. Asians and
Asian Descendants face deep-seated racism and xenophobia, lack access to
political, economic and social opportunities, are denied civil rights and
liberties, and are victims of especially violent hate crimes, racial profiling,
discriminatory employment and unjust immigration policies and practices. In
some cases communities such as Sikhs and others with distinct identities
composed of a complex interplay of racial, ethnic, religious and cultural
factors face institutional discrimination due to the fact that they do not fit
into traditional notions of race and ethnicity.
81. We note with
concern that despite the contributions they have made to the countries where
they live, and regardless of their long history of residence in these
countries, Asians and Asian descendants continue to face distortion or
omissions of their role in history in school texts and the media, and are
viewed as inassimilable foreigners, security risks, spies and terrorists.
82. We are
concerned that Diasporic Asian descendants are often criminalized and used as
scapegoats for social and economic problems and international conflicts, and
are subject to laws and practices that overtly and systematically discriminate
against them.
83. We note with
concern that Asian and Asian Descendant women in particular suffer many of the
negative effects of globalization and of the intersection of sexism, racism and
poverty, for example as manifested in the portrayal of Asian women as
submissive and exotic sexual objects in the media as well as in traditional and
historical negative attitudes that make them vulnerable to trafficking for
prostitution as mail order brides, domestic workers, low wage or sweat shop
workers, and as bonded labour.
84. Work and descent based discrimination, including 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.
85. The practice of untouchability,
rooted in the caste system, stigmatises 260 million Dalits in South Asia as
‘polluted’ or ‘impure’, thereby denying them entry into places of religious
worship, participation in religious festivals, assigning them menial and degrading work including cleaning
toilets, skinning and disposal of dead animals, digging graves and sweeping, and the
forced prostitution of Dalit women and girls through the traditional system of
temple prostitution (Devadasi).
86. The system of ‘Hidden
apartheid’ based on caste
practices of distinction, exclusion and restrictions denies Dalits’ enjoyment
of their economic, social, political, cultural and religious rights, exposing them to all forms of
violence and manifests
itself in the segregation of housing settlements and cemeteries, segregation in
tea stalls (‘two-cup’ system), denial of access to common drinking water,
restaurants, places of worship, restrictions on marriage and other insidious
measures all of which inhibit their development as equals.
87. Caste discrimination and
‘untouchability’ practised against generations of Dalits for centuries together
amounts to systemic ‘generational
and cultural Daliticide’, which is the mass-scale destruction of their individual and collective identity,
dignity and self-respect for generations through cultural methods and
practices.
88. Any action or
even any sign of an attempt to act by Dalits either individually or
collectively to assert their rights is met with extreme measures of violence
such as burning or destruction of their homes, property and crops, social
boycott, rape or gang rape of Dalit women and murder by dominant caste
individuals or groups, police or the bureaucracy, and that in such instances
the State often acts with impunity and in connivance with these perpetrators.
89. Work and descent based discrimination against the Buraku people of
Japan has existed for over 400 years and continues to be experienced today by
over 3 million people in relation to marriage, employment and education, with
new forms of discrimination emerging such as discriminatory propaganda and
incitement to discrimination against them, especially on the Internet.
90. The vulnerability of the victims of work and descent based
discrimination, including caste discrimination and untouchability, is
aggravated by legal systems and law enforcement machinery that fail to protect
them and hence are responsible for the continued perpetuation of
discrimination, and by States that are themselves often the law-breakers.
CRIMINAL
JUSTICE AND JUDICIAL SYSTEMS
91. We recognize the obligations of governments to remove or amend in
accordance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination all forms of legislation, policies or practices that have the
purpose or effect of discriminating against any person on the basis of race,
religion, nationality, language, caste, ethnicity, or minority or refugee
status, through the full integration of international instruments relevant to
racism into national laws, regulations and administrative practices, and the
identification and elimination at the national and local level of
institutionalized racism existing in the policies, procedures, practices and
culture of public or private criminal justice institutions.
92. We recognize the value and importance of the binding General
Recommendations issued by CERD that CERD consider issuing a separate General
Recommendation interpreting racial discrimination as constituting “degrading
treatment” within the meaning of article 3 of European Charter of Human Rights
as interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights.
93. We recognize the need to give special consideration to the concerns and
needs of women, young people, persons of African descent, Indigenous Peoples,
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons, disabled persons, the
impoverished, and persons living in situations or countries of conflict, who
are affected by the criminal justice system, as well as to the incarceration
and withholding of legal rights and services to asylum seekers and refugees.
94. We recognize the obligation to have effective remedies, including
remedies against government agencies and officers, for victims of racial and
other forms of discrimination who have been disparately impacted upon, disproportionately
targeted, prosecuted and sentenced due to their race, nationality, ethnic
background, religious beliefs or other differences.
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.
96.
Foreign
occupation creates an environment in which the occupied people are exposed to a
wide range of systemic and gross violations of human rights and freedoms,
including dispossession, displacement and denial of their right to self
determination and women of occupied territories are subjected to rape, sexual
slavery, forced pregnancy and other forms of violence against women.
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
creates 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.
98.
Recognizing
further that the Palestinian people are one such people currently enduring a
colonialist, discriminatory military occupation that violates their fundamental
human right of self-determination including the illegal transfer of Israeli
citizens into the occupied territories and establishment of a permanent illegal
Israeli infrastructure; and other racist methods amounting to Israel’s brand of
apartheid and other racist crimes against humanity. Recognizing therefore that
the Palestinian people have the clear right under international law to resist
such occupation by any means provided under international law until they
achieve their fundamental human right to self-determination and end the Israeli
racist system including its own brand of apartheid.
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’s 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.
100.
We are
appalled at the situation of thirty million Kurdish people scattered in several
countries including Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria, who are oppressively
prevented from exercising their national legitimate rights of self
determination. We deplore the policies of genocide and practices of
ethnic cleansing against the Kurds.
We strongly condemn all forms of discrimination against the Kurds, such
as confiscation of their lands, deportation and displacement of population,
destruction of their culture, denial of their civil rights as well as their
cultural and political rights.
101.
We recognise the situation of 6
million Tibetan people suffering under 50 years of the occupation of their
country who continue to suffer institutionalized forms of racial discrimination
under the Chinese occupation, and condemn actions of the Chinese government
that continues to exploit, explore and extract the rich minerals resources of
Tibet, causing irreversible damage to the fragile eco-system on the Tibetan
plateau.
102.
We note with great concern the
implementation of government policies of population transfer of millions of
Chinese settlers into Tibet and the carrying out of coercive birth control
practices against Tibetan women, which contributes to heighten discrimination
against Tibetan people.
103.
The monocultural and hegemonic practices
of the Chinese government, through the school system and through other state
institutions has caused forced integration and assimilation and deprived the
Tibetan people of their human rights.
PERSONS WITH
DISABILITIES
104.
Persons with
disabilities are vulnerable or affected by multiple and intersectional
discrimination based on race, ethnic origin, gender, age and other grounds and
are victims of governmental and societal neglect.
105.
A growing
number of persons with disabilities are also victims of racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, especially in situations of
conflict and when victimised by religious persecution and other forms of
intolerance.
106.
In particular,
persons with disabilities experience grave discrimination in having access to health, education, employment,
sports, accommodation as well as access to public transport and buildings, and
access to language, in situations when sign language and other forms of
communication are not available, especially with regard to their reproductive
rights and access to health education.
107.
Exclusion and
non-consideration of disability in the allocation of resources in particular
basic essentials, assistive devices and other basic technology and
communication devices is another key form of discrimination against persons with
disabilities.
EDUCATION
108.
Education is
critically important in combating and preventing prejudice as well as the
protection of individual human
rights and specifically with regard to Indigenous Peoples, Dalits and minority and vulnerable groups and further
recalling that many State parties have not yet implemented ICERD article 7.
109.
Bearing in mind that education is a
primary function of understanding human rights and freedoms, we deplore the
fact that some educational systems are used as tools for advancing racist,
sexist, casteist and supremacists ideologies and in doing so employ texts,
documents and other tools of learning that convey pejorative images through
omission of facts of past and present realities of Africans, Indigenous
Peoples, Asians, Dalits, and their descendants and members of other minority
and marginalized communities.
110.
Considering that schools and other
centers of learning play a critical role in shaping future generations, we
recognise that current efforts in schools and other centers of learning to
combat racism, including challenging racist and sexist language, pejorative
images are woefully inadequate.
111.
We also note
with concern the lack of school curricula that meets international standards,
recognizing the value of having a school curricula that is devoid of
discriminatory content and that teaches the principles of equality, dignity,
human rights and fundamental freedoms, adopting a holistic approach that
includes a balance between a science and technology-based approach and an
indigenous knowledge and philosophy based approach.
112.
We recognize
the historical, financial and other institutional barriers faced by Africans,
Indigenous Peoples, Asians and their descendants and members of other minority
and marginalized communities when they seek to access institutions of higher
learning and particularly women and girls of disadvantaged and vulnerable
communities.
113.
Members of
many national, ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic groups including on
the basis of their being considered a minority are subjected, collectively and
individually, to all forms of racism including denial of citizenship, exclusion
from political participation, social and economic resources of the state, as
well as genocide practices. We acknowledge that internal passport and residence
permit system represent a policy leading to discrimination and expulsion of
ethnic minorities and groups in many regions, in particular, in countries in
transition. The ways in which nation- or ethnic-state structures
strengthen majority rule is a main
factor in such exclusion.
114.
The enjoyment
of rights based on principles of human dignity and liberty has been a
historical challenge, particularly for people who became national minorities in
their homeland through processes of colonization and dispossession of their
land. These processes have led to the denial of the right of minorities and
groups to sovereignty and self-determination and have placed limitations on the
right of women to transmit their nationality to their children, on an equal
basis with men.
115.
We assert that
minorities and groups are entitled to affirm their right to self determination
which includes, inter alia, the
recognition of their history, national memory, historical land claims, language
rights, cultural rights, religious rights as well as the right to share
political power.
116.
Affirmative
action, through the use of temporary measures is a method of redressing
historical injustices and has often been used to advance the cause of minority
communities. Regrettably, however,
it has sometimes been used by states to promote majoritarian ethno-nationalism,
as in Malaysia and in Sri Lanka.
ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM
117.
Environmental racism is a human rights
violation and is a form of discrimination caused by government and private
sector policy, practice, action or inaction which intentionally or
unintentionally, disproportionately targets and harms the environment, health,
biodiversity, local economy, quality of life and security of communities,
workers, groups, and individuals based on race, class, color, gender, caste,
ethnicity and/or national origin.
118.
We condemn the
abuse of all forms of power, greed, and exclusion of victims of environmental
racism from decision-making, unequal enforcement, non-existent or ineffective
environmental laws and regulations, manipulation of media and language barriers
to perpetuate and conceal the environmental harms to human health, displacement
of people, depletion of natural resources, and the degradation of biodiversity
all of which are manifestations of environmental racism targeting Indigenous
Peoples, Africans and African descendants, Asians and Asian descendants, Middle
Eastern Peoples, Pacific Islanders, Latinos, Caribbean Peoples, ethnic and
national minorities and groups, and other social groups most vulnerable to
practices of unsustainable development and militarization, especially children,
women, the elderly, displaced, immuno-suppressed, as well as low and no income
people.
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.
120. Globalisation including structural adjustment policies, privatisation, trade liberalisation and unequal terms of trade create new and exacerbate already existing conditions of exclusion of all individuals and communities, particularly women, who are the victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
121.
We
denounce processes of globalisation that
concentrate power in the hands of powerful Western nations and
multinational corporations, and that has an impact on every aspect of social
life in every country and region, as racist and unjust. It widens economic inequalities within and
between countries, further impoverishing and marginalizing masses of peoples,
and places them at risk to the demand for cheap and informal labour in
labour-importing countries. Tools of globalisation such as structural
adjustment policies result in poverty, famine and the collapse of health and
educational systems. Globalisation leads to economic and social
disintegration, unemployment and
marginalisation. It particularly implies both feminisation and racialisation of
poverty. Compensatory measures must be extended in this context.
122.
The processes of social exclusion that accompany globalisation create
situations of polarisation that result in the disintegration of local
communities and countries,
sometimes leading to an increase in organised crime and ethnic conflicts.
123.
Globalisation is the continuation of colonial and imperial control. It is inherently racist and
anti-democratic, and creates a network of laws and policies that unevenly
integrate the world through markets,
trade, transnational corporations and information and communication technology.
124.
The wealth and the power of globalisation is concentrated in the global
capitalist class and is inherently linked to racism and casteism,
including environmental racism,
and leading to many different forms of violence, militarisation and
nuclearisation of countries and cities.
The UN itself is shaped by
the same powers that control the process of globalisation.
125.
New commodities, information and communication technologies that are
apart ofglobalisation process increase the gap among "have" and
"have nots", creating a free market for capitals and goods but
restricting the movement of labour.
HATE CRIMES
126.
Members of
marginalized and minority communities are targeted for hate crimes including
burning of places of worship and religious symbols, sexual violence,
desecration of places of worship, cemeteries and other sacred places. Violence
against the leaders of such communities is of particular concern.
127.
Hate crimes
target individuals because of their identity and decimate lives and communities,
stigmatizing individuals and communities, robbing people of personal security,
promoting fear, constraining lifestyles and participation in all aspects of
society, causing psychological and physical harm, repressing and silencing
demands for justice and self-determination, undermining peace and democracy,
and reinforcing racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance. Women are particularly vulnerable to some forms of hate crimes,
especially sexual violence.
128.
Many peoples
and members of marginalized and minority communities are subjected to hate
crimes and/or ethnic cleansing as they attempt to exercise their right to
self-determination, including the Kurdish, Chechen, Tibetan, Acehnese and West
Papuan people, and Indigenous Peoples.
129.
Hate crimes,
ethnic cleansing and genocide include violence and murder, rape and other
sexual violence, racist propaganda, incitements to violence, race riots,
massacres, disappearances of members of communities advocating for social
change and self determination and is perpetuated by organized hate groups,
military, police, religious entities, governments, and individuals.
130.
Ideological
genocide has been committed against people in Indonesia in 1965-1966 resulting
in the death, disappearance and torture of over 1 million suspected communists.
None of the perpetrators or masterminds of this crime against humanity have
been brought to justice. As a result, the xenophobic suppression of those
expressing left-wing ideology continues to this day in Indonesia.
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS
131.
Disadvantaged
racial, ethnic and cultural vulnerable groups, Indigenous Peoples, migrants,
people discriminated against based on caste, asylum seekers, refugees and
internally displaced people, especially women, youth, children and people with disabilities face multiple forms of
discrimination that result in poor health status, less access to affordable and
good health care and lower quality of health services. In particular this has
contributed to high rate of maternal mortality amongst women of these groups.
132.
We condemn the
failure of governments, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector to
respond aggressively to the AIDS pandemic which is exacerbated by international
racism and reinforced by poverty, discrimination against women and poor health
services.
133.
Gender, sexual
orientation, gender identity and disabilities in conjunction with race are often the basis for denial of
access to quality, comprehensive, sensible cultural health care, including
access to sexual and reproductive heath services.
134.
We condemn the
unscrupulous practices of the tobacco, alcohol, drug and gun industries in
their targeting of disadvantaged communities, particularly the promoting and
encouraging of smoking in developing countries.
135.
Governments,
non-governmental organizations, the private sector and the international
community should ensure that health care providers/practitioners are trained to
provide culturally appropriate care; and that members of African and African
Descendant communities, indigenous communities and other vulnerable groups are
adequately represented as health care providers. In order to assure cultural
appropriate care, governments must permit and promote traditional health
practices in coordination with traditional healers.
136.
Governments
and the international community should assure that the health care system is
adequately funded, sustainable and effectively monitored; that the sources of
funding for health care comes not only from the national government but also
from the international community including cancellation of illegitimate debt
and decreased military spending.
137.
Lack of
routine and systematic research on disparities in physical and mental health
and inadequate collection of data
on the basis of race, gender and socio-economic factors related to health
status and health care of vulnerable groups and access to quality health care
heighten difficulties in addressing the experiences of racism, social
exclusion, and other forms of discrimination in health.
138.
We deplore the
attitudes and practices of certain international pharmaceutical companies as
well as the indifference on the part of the international community that are
contributing to the additional prevalence of this genocidal virus, particularly
in so far as it affects the African continent and other countries in the
developing world exacerbated by conditions of poverty and inequality.
139.
Women are at
higher risk for HIV infection because of the epidemic of sexual violence
against them. Combating HIV/AIDS requires, among other things, that States
eliminate legal and practical discrimination against women and girls and
prevent, investigate, and punish acts of violence and discrimination against
women.
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.
141.
Indigenous Peoples continue to suffer the
loss of their territories and resources, the destruction of their cultures, and
violence directed at their peoples. Indigenous women and children, in
particular, endure multiple forms of discrimination. This dispossession,
violence and discrimination constitute flagrant violations of our human rights
in contravention of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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.
143.
Racism against Indigenous Peoples manifests itself in discriminatory
laws and policies that perpetuate
and exacerbate racism against Indigenous Peoples. These laws and policies
include the denial of the status of Indigenous Peoples with the right to self
determination under international law, the militarization of indigenous lands
and territories, doctrines that allow Indigenous territories to be taken
without due process of law or adequate compensation, the unilateral
extinguishment of indigenous land rights, the doctrine of plenary power,
discrimination against Indigenous Peoples in the civil and criminal justice
systems of States, failure to recognise the justice systems of Indigenous
Peoples, the lack of equal participation of Indigenous Peoples in
decision-making processes in matters that may affect their cultural, spiritual
or physical integrity, the lack of respect for treaties, agreements and laws
between Indigenous Peoples and States with no legal resource for Indigenous
Peoples, the denial of
protection of the religious freedom for Indigenous prisoners, the
disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous Peoples, policies that deny, suppress or destroy Indigenous
languages, and the
presumption that Indigenous Peoples do not own subsoil resources under their
lands.
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 sterilisation 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.
145.
Religious Intolerance towards Indigenous spiritual practices and the
profaning of indigenous sacred sites and objects has been a fundamental
instrument in the subjugation of Indigenous Peoples since the invasion and the
beginning of colonialism, and is a persistent evil that States must take action
to end.
146.
Environmental racism -- an historical form of racial discrimination
-- has led to and continues to
lead to the ruination of indigenous lands, waters and environments by the
implementation of unsustainable schemes, such as mining, biopiracy,
deforestation, the dumping of contaminated waste, oil and gas drilling and
other land use practices that do not respect indigenous ceremonies, spiritual
beliefs, traditional medicines and life ways, the biodiversity of indigenous
lands, indigenous economies and means of subsistence, and the right to health.
LABOUR
147.
Racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance as experienced by most
migrant, immigrant, indigenous as well as second generation descendent workers
is manifested through multiple forms of discrimination practiced in the
workplace and in the communities in which they live. These include restrictive
and exclusionary immigration and labour laws and policies, the denial of trade
union rights, exploitative working conditions, low wages and non payment of
wages, denial or restriction of labour law protections based on types of
job, lack of access to public services
such as health, housing and social security. It also includes subtle and overt
acts of hostility and violence based on colour, race, nationality, gender, age,
caste, class and ethnicity. Full labour law protections must be afforded all
workers with no discrimination based on occupation.This discrimination is
structural in nature and contravenes international standards. Undocumented
migrant workers are doubly at risk of racism and xenophobia. Their lack of
legal status is too often used as an excuse to deny human rights, including
access to the law and social services.
148.
The negative
effects of globalisation has a specific impact on workers. In particular
globalisation has a negative effect on women who are trafficked as as sex trade
workers or employed as low wage and sweat shop workers.
149.
Colonialism,
slavery and other forms of servitude are primary sources of racism, race
discrimination and xenophobia and despite international agreements to outlaw
slavery, the trafficking of African children for slavery and forced labour is
still ongoing whilst the enslavement and other forms of servitude of Africans
and African descendants, Asian and Asian descendants and other marginalized
groups have resulted in substantial and lasting economic, political and
cultural damage to these peoples. This form of exploitation is particularly
damaging to African and African descendant women, who are still victims of
sexual trafficking and sexual exploitation, poverty and social exclusion
150.
The policies
and programmes of the WTO and International Financial Institutions, in particular
the IMF and World Bank, often aggravate racism and other discriminatory
practices.
151.
Recognising
the valuable role of trade unions, as democratic and representative
organizations of working people and their unique functions of trade unions in
fighting racism and discrimination in the labour market and in society
generally, we recognize the central role of those affected by racism in
developing, implementing and monitoring policies and programmes to eliminate
racism.
MEDIA AND
COMMUNICATION
152.
We affirm the
fundamental right to freedom of expression and freedom of the press as a key
tenet of human rights and a free democracy. We recognize, however, that media
plays an important role in shaping people’s attitudes and beliefs about race
and this impact is increasing with globalization and increasing concentration
of media ownership.
153.
We believe
that information and communication technology can be used as a positive tool to
combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, caste-based discrimination
and related intolerance and can promote tolerance, respect for diversity in
ways that help ensure opportunity, empowerment and access to
information .
154.
Information
and communication technology is a factor in global inequities as developed
countries not only have greater access to these technologies but are also producers of these
technologies thereby rendering
developing countries consumers. We urge equal development that results in
greater equity and balance in both access to resources and training opportunities
to develop key skills.
MIGRANTS AND
MIGRANT WORKERS
155.
The
restructuring of the global economy facilitates the transnational movement of
capital but tries to restrict the and control the movement labour, thereby exacerbating regional
economic inequalities and the commodification and de-regularisation of migrant
workers, and especially forcing workers into ‘flexible’ conditions of work
which are exploitative and which undermine all universally accepted labour
standards.
156.
We express our concern that in many countries official programmes and
actions aimed at controlling migration and regulating inter-ethnic relations
result in new and covert forms of institutionalised racism. Migrants and
migrant workers, both documented and undocumented, contribute in various ways
to the well-being and enrichment of their own societies as well as of the
societies in which they reside and work and their access to equal rights and
opportunities in these countries, including access to permanent residency,
citizenship, and the recognition of their own independent status in all
immigration matters, especially for women and children must be recognised.
157.
Migrants and migrant workers as well as members of their families are
vulnerable to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance. The technical qualifications, skills and
expertise of migrants and migrant workers need to be valued, and their full and
fair access to employment in both the public and private sector need to be
ensured.
158.
Women migrants and migrant workers,
including those with disabilities, are especially vulnerable to all forms of
violence and abuse due to the ways in which sexist and patriarchal ideologies
frame the current international division of labour and contribute to the
feminization of the work force, undervaluing women’s work, and restricting
women to sectors of employment such as domestic work and entertainment.
159.
Acknowledging that immigrant and refugee
women, young people, girls and children very often constitute a high proportion
of workers in informal employment including home-working or outworking,
domestic work, sweatshops and the sex industry. Language barriers, citizenship
status, race discrimination and being part of an ethnic minority contribute to
the vulnerability of women, girls and children who work in this sector.
Governments should legislate to protect these women, girls and children,
prioritizing their human rights and undertake awareness raising programmes,
working with community organizations, ethnic communities and unions to ensure
that migrant workers and refugees are not exploited and made aware of how to
enforce their rights. Governments should also reform labour law to ensure that
female dominated employment sectors enjoy complete labour rights protection.
PALESTINIANS
AND PALESTINE
160.
Appalled by
the on-going colonial military Israeli occupation of the Occupied Palestinian
Territories (the West Bank including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip), we declare
and call for an immediate end to the Israeli systematic perpetration of racist
crimes including war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing (as defined
in the Statute of the International Criminal Court), including uprooting by
military attack, and the imposition of any and all restrictions and measures on
the population to make life so difficult that the only option is to leave the
area, and state terrorism against the Palestinian people, recognizing that all
of these methods are designed to ensure the continuation of an exclusively
Jewish state with a Jewish majority and the expansion of its borders to gain
more land, driving out the indigenous Palestinian population.
161.
We declare
that this alien domination and subjugation with the denial of territorial
integrity amounts to colonialism, which denies the fundamental rights of
self-determination, independence and freedom of Palestinians. Condemn this process of settler
colonialism through the on-going collective punishments, expropriation and
destruction of Palestinian lands, homes, property, agricultural land and crops;
the establishment of illegal Israeli settlements, the mass transfer of Israeli
Jewish populations to the illegally expropriated Palestinian land and the
development of a permanent and illegal Israeli infrastructure, including
by-pass roads.
162.
We declare
Israel as a racist, apartheid state in which Israels brand of apartheid as a
crime against humanity has been characterized by separation and segregation,
dispossession, restricted land access, denationalization, ¨bantustanization¨
and inhumane acts.
163.
Appalled by
the inhumane acts perpetrated in the maintenance of this new form of apartheid
regime through the Israeli state war on civilians including military attacks,
torture, arbitrary arrests and detention, the imposition of severe restrictions
on movement (curfews, imprisonment and besiegement of towns and villages), and
systematic collective punishment, including economic strangulation and
deliberate impoverishment, denial of the right to food and water, the right to
an adequate standard of living, the right to housing, the right to education
and the right to work.
164.
We recognize
that targeted victims of Israel´s brand of apartheid and ethnic cleansing
methods have been in particular children, women and refugees and condemn the
disproportionate numbers of children and women killed and injured in military
shooting and bombing attacks. Recognize the right of return of refugees and
internally displaced people to their homes of origin, restitution of
properties, and compensation for damages, losses and other crimes committed
against them, as guaranteed in international law.
165.
Appalled by
the discrimination against the Palestinians inside Israel which include: The
imposition of discriminatory laws, including the discriminatory laws of return
and citizenship, which emphasize the ethnicity of the Israeli state as a Jewish
state; the granting of benefits or privileges solely to the Jewish Israeli
citizens; the imposition of restrictions on the civil and political rights of
Palestinians because of their national belonging or because they do not belong
to the majority ethnic group;The negation of the right of Palestinians to equal
access to resources of the State and civil equality, including affirmative
action policies, which recognize the historical discrimination against
Palestinians inside Israel.
REFUGEES,
ASYLUM SEEKERS, STATELESS AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS
166.
There is an
inextricable link between racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance and the creation of situation which generate refugees, asylum
seekers, stateless and displaced persons.
167.
In situations of flight and displacement, in refugee camps and in the
process of resettlement, refugees, asylum seekers, stateless and displaced
persons are especially vulnerable to all forms of violence and abuse,
especially during their integration
168.
We are particularly concerned about the situation of the Bhutanese
people forcibly displaced from their country under the racist ‘One Nation One
People’ policy, which has reallocated the land of these legitimate Bhutanese
citizens to other ethnic groups and deliberately delayed their peaceful
repatriation.
169.
Women constitute 80% of the world’s refugees. Women refugees, asylum
seekers, stateless and displaced persons are victimised due to the intersectionality
of gender and disability and other forms of discrimination and face many
difficulties in every stage of their flight and displacement.
170.
We call for
the recognition of racial discrimination against refugees on grounds of
ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation and gender identity which negatively
affects their legal status and conditions of integration and resettlement.
171.
The physical
and psychological conditions of asylum seekers, recognized and unrecognized
refugees, stateless persons should be recognised especially to ensure that
those of them who are victims of torture and detention in their countries of
origin are not detained in receiving countries. The permanent, statutory
presence of humanitarian organizations to help and assist refugees, should be
provided by law, funded by the State and programmed in a pluralistic manner.
RELIGIOUS
INTOLERANCE
172.
We welcome the
initiative of the UN Secretary General in convening the Millenium Peace Summit
for World Spiritual and Religious Leaders in celebrating the 20th
anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of
Intolerance Based on Religion or Belief and look forward to the full
implementation of its conclusions by all States.
173.
We recognize
that some religious communities and institutions have acknowledged their
historical complicity in perpetrating the ground for, or reinforcing
colonization, apartheid, the Slave Trade and slavery, and call for all other
concerned religious institutions to undertake the same action to declare and
denounce racism and racial discrimination as immoral and inhumane.
174.
The freedom of
expression, thought, conscience, religion and belief without any distinction,
exclusion or restriction or preference should form the basis on which States
protect the right of individuals and groups to profess and practice their own
religion or belief as well as to ensure their right to effectively participate
in civil, political, economic, social and cultural life.
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.
177.
Acknowledging
the transnational character of the Roma identity and its common roots from
India, we strongly support the right of Roma to be recognized by the UN, by the
regional inter-governmental bodies and organizations, by States and by the
whole world, as a non-territorial nation.
178.
Deploring the public educational policies that deny the development of the esteem of children and youth of Roma,
we strongly condemn monocultural autarchic and inflexible educational systems
which ignore or stigmatize the Roma cultural identity.
179.
We deplore the
lack of equal access to employment and social services, including justice,
citizenship, housing, schooling, health care and public information for Roma
and particularly Roma women, strongly condemn those legislative provisions and
public policies that encourage such practices or avoid measures to combat them
and consider this fact as being institutionalized racism.
SEXUAL ORIENTATION
180.
Despite the
existence of binding international agreements and conventions establishing the
principles of non-discrimination and equality without distinctions regarding
race, age, language, ethnic group, culture, religion, disability or other
status, and growing recognition of the freedom of sexual orientation as a
fundamental human right, there remain serious obstacles to the full enjoyment
of civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights
of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons.
181.
There are high
rates of physical, sexual and psychological violence in the public domain and
in private life as well as hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgendered persons, particularly in cases aggravated by other forms of
discrimination.
182.
Discrimination and intolerance based on
sexual orientation and gender identity have led to high suicide rates among
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered persons in many parts of the world.
183.
Whenever
measures are not taken to provide a clean environment because of discrimination
on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, caste and untouchability, age, sexual
orientation, gender identity, disabilities, religion, culture, social status,
nationality and other forms of discrimination, has often caused increased
health problems for many members of these groups.
184.
We note with great concern that racism,
racial discrimination, xenophobia and other intolerance, including homophobia
and sexism, have played a significant role in barring access to education and treatment
for those infected, presumed to be infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.
185.
We also note
with deep concern the dissemination in the media Of stereotypes and pejorative
images of Africans, African descendants, Indigenous Peoples, Dalits, migrants
and other groups affected by intolerance and discrimination and particularly,
women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons of these groups.
YOUNG PEOPLE
AND CHILDREN
186.
Children and
young people, particularly young Indigenous Peoples, African and African
Descendants, Roma Peoples, Dalits, minorities and peoples of oppressed
nationalities, ethnicities or caste within their States are discriminated
against, excluded from and marginalized in the decision making processes,
resulting in the limiting of the full and active participation in the
political, economic and cultural sectors. In addition, children and young
people, particularly girl children and young women and those with disabilities
are discriminated against in education, health, civil and criminal justice,
media and the environment.
187.
We strongly
condemn public educational policies that deny the development of children and
young people’s self-esteem, through monocultural autarchic and inflexible
educational systems which ignore or stigmatise any children and young people,
such as but not limited to Indigenous peoples, African and African Descendants,
Roma Peoples, Dalits, minorities and peoples of oppressed nationalities,
ethnicities or castes.
187.
188.
Young persons
are often portrayed as criminals, based on stereotypes of race, class and
sexual orientation, and this criminalization results in further marginalization
of this community.
189.
The girl child
suffers numerous racist and discriminatory acts and behaviours, which
compromise the girl child’s development with her family, the community and
society. This then impacts
negatively on her physical, psychological, biological needs and on her sense of belonging.
190.
The girl child
suffers discrimination and intolerance rooted in wars and killings, which
destroy significant members of her family. In addition, the girl child is
commercially exploited due to unfavourable economic, sociological and cultural
factors, particularly, within families where boys are treated more
advantageously.
TRAFFICKING
191.
Trafficking in
persons is a form of racism that is recognized as a contemporary form of
slavery and is aggravated by the increase in racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance. The demand side in trafficking is created
by a globalized market, and a patriarchal notion of sexuality. Trafficking
happens within and across boarders, largely in conjunction with prostitution.
192.
Women and children are especially
vulnerable to trafficking, as the intersectionality of gender, disability, race
and other forms of discrimination leads to multiple forms of discrimination.
193.
Trafficking in persons must always be
dealt with not purely as a law enforcement issue but within a framework of
respect for the rights of trafficked persons.
NGO FORUM PROGRAMME OF
ACTION
This plan of Action
is informed by the following guiding principles:
194.
Racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance are forms of discrimination
based on historically unjust social, economic and political orders. These
phenomena mutate, re-invent and continue to manifest themselves in contemporary
societies, causing severe psychological scars and perpetuating deep inequality
and poverty. Therefore, this Programme of Action, whilst acknowledging the past
and its impact on the present, is forward looking, and requires a concerted and
sustained effort from members of the global community in order to succeed.
195.
Racism and
racial discrimination are founded on ideologies of racial supremacy that have
historically and systematically denied certain groups of people full enjoyment
of their human rights and fundamental freedoms. The restoration of dignity to
those who have suffered the consequences of these ideologies is central to our
humanity.
196.
The
proliferation of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance is sustained by a lack of political will on the part of governments
and other political, economic and social actors. This indicates the magnitude
of the task and the difficulties that lie ahead in eradicating racism.
197.
The
eradication of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance, particularly contemporary forms of slavery, calls for a radical
transformation of society, and for a re-ordering of global institutions which
are presently dominated by rich countries and which have created a framework
within which racist and other discriminatory practices can continue to
flourish.
198.
Within this context, the UN should, as a
priority, initiate and engage in a process of restructuring that could more
effectively implement the universal values of equality and justice as envisaged
by the UN Charter, and work towards redressing current imbalances in global
structures with a focus on addressing the core issue of poverty and inequality.
199.
In light of
the above, the NGO Forum for the WCAR salutes the courage of all those who have
resisted and who continue to resist racism and all other forms of
discrimination and commits to support all efforts aimed at redressing past and
present violations through reparations and other remedies, based on the
acknowledgement of racism derived from historical privileges and prevailing in
every part and country of the world.
PART C-2
We
the NGO Forum :
200.
Recognizing
that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
constitute gross violations of human rights which threaten and undermine
democratic societies and the Rule of Law and that institutional and structural
racism manifests itself directly and indirectly in the laws, policies and practices
of governments, institutions, public service sector and multinationals, declare
that these violations must be addressed by appropriate legal measures, policies
and practices
201.
Recognizing
that Global economic institutions such as the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organizations are dominated by the G7
countries and that they perpetuate economic and social injustices in the
developing nations, call upon the United Nations to urgently review and address
the structural imbalances and inequalities in such institutions, in order to
ensure equal access of opportunity and equality between developed and
developing nations. All States and governments and the United Nation should
ensure that these institutions meet all human rights standards and universal
values.
202.
Recognizing
that multinationals operate in a Global environment without effective laws,
policies and practices to regulate them. Multinationals are often guilty of
committing gross human rights violations in developing countries and that this
perpetuates economic, political and social injustice thus causing further
instability. We call upon the UN to appoint a special Rapporteur whose mandate
should be to investigate and to report on the role of multinationals in the commission
of gross human rights violations and such practices that perpetuate racism,
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in all countries. The
Report should make specific recommendations relating to the establishment of a
Special Covenant to govern the conduct of multinationals globally
203.
Recognizing
that the structure of the Security Council perpetuates economic and social
injustice and racism, call upon the United Nations to restructure the Security
Council to address the imbalance in voting powers that has resulted in the
perpetuation of racism for decades. Such restructuring should address the issue
of permanent and non-permanent membership so as to ensure equity in the
decision making process.
204.
Recognizing
the concerns of marginalized groups and persons within the global community of
the role and accountability of the Judiciary about the application and
interpretation of laws the impact of which perpetuates racism. We call upon the
Commission on Human rights to expand the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on
the Independence of Judges and Lawyers to deal with questions of accountability
of the Judiciary and make recommendations in respect thereof. The mandate of
the Rapporteur should also include recommendations on the training of Judges
particularly in the areas of human rights and humanitarian law and contemporary
forms of racism within the system. The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms
of racism should have his mandate extended similarly.
205.
Recognizing
that the efforts of the UN High Commissioner to effect positive changes in
Humanitarian law are severely hampered by the paucity of the budget allocated
to such office, call upon the UN to provide that office with a regular and
proper budget to ensure its effective functioning of that office.
206.
Recognizing
that globalization reinforces the exploitation and exclusion of developing
countries from the full benefit of economic and political and social
development call upon Governments to cancel the debts of developing countries.
207.
Recognizing
that whilst States are signatories to International and regional Instruments,
yet seldom comply with their obligations in terms thereof, thus perpetuating a
culture of impunity. We therefore call upon all States to ratify without
reservation, and implement all international and regionalinstruments. In
particular:-
·
The International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD);
·
The
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICPR);
·
The
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR);
·
The Convention
on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and
its additional Protocol;
·
The Convention
on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their
Families (MWC);
·
The Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC);
·
The Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
(Convention Against Torture);
·
The
International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); and
·
The Vienna
Declaration and Program of Action.
·
The African
Charter on Human and Peoples Rights
·
The African
Charter on the Welfare and Rights of the Child
·
The OAU
Convention on Specific Aspects on Refugees in Africa
·
Convention
Relating to the Status of Refugees
·
European
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
including Protocol 12 to this convention
·
European
Convention on Regional and Minority Languages
·
European
Framework Convention on Ethnic Minorities
·
European Social
Charter and Optional Protocol allowing for submission of collective complaints
·
The American
Convention on Human Rights
·
The American
Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man
·
The First
Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women, allowing for the submission of individual and
group complaints
·
All ILO
Conventions as well as UNESCO instruments
·
The UN
Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and Supplementary Protocol to
Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and
Children
·
1949
Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of
the Prostitution
·
Stockholm Agenda
for Action Addressing the Sexual Exploitation of Children
The following
measures should be addressed:
208.
Urge States to
adopt the draft Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights providing for a system of individual and collective
complaints.
209.
Recognizing the 1998 ILO
Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work which holds
governments responsible for respecting and promoting a set of fundamental
rights for workers, including freedom of association, the elimination of forced
labour, the abolition of child labour, and the prohibition against
discrimination in employment, as well as ILO Convention169 on Indigenous
Peoples and Conventions 97 and 143 on Migrant Workers.
210.
Recognizing the value and
importance of the binding general comments issued by ICERD, we call upon States
to:
211.
Implement Art. 6 of
ICERD which assures effective protection and remedies to victims of racism and
racial discrimination and accept the right to just and fair compensatory measures
for victims of racism and racial discrimination.
212.
Implement Art. 7 of
ICERD, which targets education as an essential, mean for combating racism.
213.
Lift any
reservations to ICERD, and declare under Article 14 of the Convention that it
recognizes the competence of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination (CERD) to accept the filing of individual complaints to the
Committee.
214.
Support the UN in
strengthening the role of CERD to allow for enforceable sanctions in cases
where CERD's Concluding Observations on the monitoring of States are not
complied with by governments within a reasonable period of time.
215.
Request that State
reports to CERD should include race and sex disaggregated data on the impact
and effect of the adopted legislation.
216.
Develop in accordance
with Article 71 of Part 2 of The Vienna Declaration a Program of Action that
requires "each State to consider the desirability of drawing up a national
action plan identifying steps whereby the State would improve the protection
and promotion of human rights", which include plans of action aimed at
fighting racism, institutional or otherwise, racial discrimination, xenophobia
and related intolerance and promote partnership relations with civil society
mainly through specialized independent national institutions on human rights
and equality.
217.
Create effective
National institutions on human rights and equality. These institutions should
be independent and have the power to monitor the implementation of
anti-discriminatory legislation, to provide assistance and legal aid to victims
and their families, to have recourse to judicial authorities, and to have
investigative, enforcement and policy making powers. These institutions should
reflect in their composition, the diversity of the society at large. They
should be funded adequately and should function without interference from the
State and with all the guarantees necessary for their independence and
impartiality
218.
Fully comply with
international humanitarian law obligations and respect non-discrimination
provisions binding on all parties to an armed conflict and ensure that the
United Nations Special Rapporteurs are always granted admission to all
territories of armed conflict...
219.
Adopt and implement comprehensive legislation expressly
prohibiting discrimination in all spheres of life, including but not limited to
education, housing, employment, health care, social services, access to
citizenship, access to public places and all other goods and services available
to the public. Such legislation should integrate a full gender dimension,
taking into consideration the intersectional discrimination faced by
marginalized communities and vulnerable groups. The implementation of such
legislation should be periodically reviewed.
220.
Mainstream the issue of
combating racism into all national policies and practices, including all
spheres of public life. Mainstreaming should include the application of
equality proofing, guidelines, positive actions, data production, proactive
monitoring and impact assessment. All groups experiencing racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerances should be encouraged to
participate in such activities.
221.
Identify and combat
institutionalized racism in every sphere in which it appears and systematically
combat racist and xenophobic attitudes within governmental institutions and the
public sector and to review all existing legislation, administrative procedures
and rules, including those on citizenship, nationality and immigration to
ensure that no provisions are discriminatory.
222.
Civil society
should be involved in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of
all policies and programmes to combat and prevent racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
223.
Ensure that, in
accordance with International Human rights standards, all groups and persons
whose rights have been violated have access to reparation.
224.
Ensure
the protection of persons or organizations that lay complaints and report
incidents of racism, discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
225.
Establish programs of
affirmative action to include persons affected by racism, racial and gender
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in the recruitment, hiring,
training, retention and promotion within the criminal justice system,
particularly those impacted by the intersectionality of these grounds.
226.
Urge States to
adopt policies to ensure that public funds are provided only to organizations
that have non-discrimination policies.
227.
Urge States to
recognize the need for uniform measures and the collection of disaggregated
data on racial and gender disparities in the enjoyment of fundamental human
rights, the complexities in establishing such uniform standards, the need to
work with NGOs in developing such measures and collecting such data, and to
commit to the public disclosure and dissemination of that data.
228.
Urge States to
acknowledge the need for technical and financial support to develop and
implement uniform measures and the collection of disaggregated data on racial
disparities and commit to the establishment of an international trust to
provide for such assistance.
229.
Call upon
the UN to organize a follow-up conference in 2005 in order to evaluate the
progress made by States, governments and civil society in the fight against racism
and to put in place mechanisms to monitor implementation at an international
level of all regional and national action plans.
AFRICAN AND AFRICAN DESCENDANTS
230.
We call on the Sub-commission on the Protection and Promotion of Human
Rights to establish a Working Group on African and African Descendants
throughout the world.
231.
We strongly call on the UN to establish, within one year from this World
Conference Against Racism, an international tribunal to measure the extent of
the damages resulting from the slave trade, slavery and colonialism on Africans
and African Descendants. We call
on the United Nations to establish and resource a world institute based in
Africa and dedicated to research, fact finding and resource networking for
Africans and African Descendants in the Diaspora.
232.
We call on all States to recognise anti-Black racism as a form of racism
with its own specificities that manifests itself particularly against Africans
and African Descendants.
SLAVERY AND SLAVE TRADE
233.
We demand that educational curricula reflect the accurate
historical experiences of both the victims and the perpetrators of the Trans
Atlantic SlaveTrade, Trans-Saharan and Trans-Indian Ocean Slave Trade, Slavery
and Colonialism.
234.
Therefore, we
call for the establishment of an international tribunal within one year to
document the character and extent of harm derived from the Trans-Atlantic slave
trade, Trans-Saharan and Trans-Indian Ocean Slave Trade, slavery and
colonialism which are crimes
against humanity.
235.
Urge governments
in Cameroon, Mauritania, Niger and Sudan that engage in any form of slavery to eradicate this
practice. In particular, laws
abolishing traditional slavery should include reparations for the victims of
these violations. Criminal
sanctions should be imposed on perpetrators of these crimes. States should recognize the human
rights of these victims, including their political, social, economic, cultural
and civil rights.
236.
We demand that
the United States, Canada, and those European and Arab nations that
participated in and benefited from the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, the Trans-Sahara Slave Trade, the
Trans-Indian Ocean Slave Trade, Slavery and the Colonization of Africa, within
one year of the WCAR establish an international compensatory mechanism for
victims of these crimes against humanity.
REPARATIONS
The United Nations and States shall:
237.
Ensure that, in accordance
with universally recognised human rights norms and standards, all nations,
groups and their members who are the victims of crimes against humanity based
on race, colour, caste, descent, ethnicity or indigenous or national origin are
provided reparations;
238.
Ensure that the perpetrators and
beneficiaries of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Slavery, Colonialism, Foreign Occupation acknowledge that
these polices and practices are crimes against humanity;
239.
Create
programs of reparations for the victims of crimes against humanity and
violations of human rights reaching the masses of the victimized and not merely
an elite few and designed to address the specific character of the peoples
injured that include:
240.
Restitution
encompassing the unconditional return of land, heritage icons and
artifacts; the provision of land to those forced to leave their homelands and
forcibly resettled in foreign lands; cancellation of debt of countries
victimized by these crimes against humanity including African countries and
impoverished countries in the Americas;
241.
Monetary
compensation that will repair the victims, including Africa, Africans and
African descendants, by closing the economic gap created by these crimes and
encompassing debt cancellation, programs for creation and enhancement of
participation in production enterprises; full accessibility and affirmative
inclusion in all levels of employment opportunity; grants of cash payments
based on assessment of losses resulting from the violations of human rights and
crimes against humanity;
242.
Restoration
including release of all political prisoners, providing for health care,
including mental health care, educational and social services that are
specifically designed to correct the injuries caused by the violations of human
rights and crimes against humanity;
243.
Satisfaction
and guarantee of non-repetition includes the public acknowledgment of the
crimes against humanity; the correction of the history of Africa, African and
African descendants in educational materials and in the media; acknowledgment
of the economic base of exploitation of the victims of crimes against humanity
and violations of human rights and the unjust enrichment of the perpetrators;
244.
Create an
independent international and regional monitoring organization with the
responsibility to assure that programs of reparations are designed and
implemented with timetables and that satisfy the provisions of this programme
of action are accomplished;
245.
We call on all
States to acknowledge the principle of reparations for the cultural,
demographic, economic, political, social and moral wrongs of the Trans-Atlantic
slave trade, Trans-Saharan slave trade, Trans-Indian Ocean slave trade, slavery and colonisation and that
African and African Descendant victims reserve the right to determine the form
and manner of reparations;
246.
We call on all concerned African nations to take formal
legal action to obtain the return
of stolen cultural artifacts, gold, money, mineral wealth and the return of
occupied land on the continent and call on the international community to
support such actions.
ANTISEMITISM
247.
Ensure that all members of civil society clearly and publicly condemn
all forms of antisemitism; recognize the responsibility of public officials to
publicly disavow hate mongers, hate speech, and other forms of expression which
spread, incite, promote or justify acts of antisemitism; ensure that
appropriate anti-discrimination legislation exists and is adequately
implemented to ensure that action is taken against individuals and institutions
responsible for discrimination and criminal acts against Jews, and the
denigration of Jews; promote concrete actions which will counteract and prevent
the increase of antisemitic incidents and hostile action against Jews as well
as the rise of radical and violent movements which foster racist ideologies and
discriminatory practices against the Jewish community; promote Holocaust remembrance,
notably through education and the organization of cultural or media events,
including the promotion of national days of Holocaust remembrance,
248.
Include the subject of antisemitism in anti-racist
education for students and teachers, and in all teaching materials,
particularly in history and social science books; introduce measures to
eliminate antisemitic propaganda, and antisemitic references in school
curricula, textbooks and the media; promote public awareness and tolerance
through non-formal education and the media; give Jewish youth an opportunity to
take an active role in educating the world about the evil that necessarily
results from Jew hatred; promote a voluntary internet code of conduct and other
voluntary measures against the purveying of sites that promote racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; encourage the United
Nations within the context of the UN Decade of Human Rights Education, to
establish a month each year dedicated to promoting responsible use of the internet
with a particular focus on the internet.
ASIANS AND ASIAN DESCENDANTS
249.
In situations
of civil and international conflicts in Asia, including armed struggles between
ethnoracial, religious, national, or caste groups, international human rights
organizations must be given the right to investigate and document cases of
rape, child abuse, ethnic cleansing, detention without trial, custodial deaths,
and disappearances. The
international community should be encouraged to impose sanctions against nation
states that act with impunity and refuse to comply with their obligations under
international human rights law, and courts should pursue prosecution of the
perpetrators of heinous crimes.
250.
We call on the
UN Sub-Commission on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights to establish
a Working Group on Asian and Asian Descendant populations including ethnic and
religious minorities in Asian countries. We further call on all states to
create Commissions with sufficient resources and with NGO participation to identify,
examine and address issues of discrimination and persecution against Asians and
Asian descendants based on race, ethnicity, caste, languages, religion,
citizenship or migrant status, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity,
disability and other factors.
251.
We call on states to institute programmes and policies to
protect Asians and Asian descendants from police misconduct and hate crimes, to
ensure the full inclusion and equality of Asians and Asian descendants through
access to fair immigration policies, as well as fair access to employment,
housing and financial resources, and in particular to acknowledge and value the
work of Asians and Asian descendant women by protecting them from exploitation
through such policies and programmes.
252.
We call upon
states, media and academic institutions to address racism, xenophobia and
stereotyping of Asians and Asian descendants by promoting their appropriate and
diverse representation in text books, courses and both entertainment and news
media and by ensuring their fair access to media through relevant licensing and
regulatory bodies.
253.
Recognize, in accordance with international law
and with the Statute of the International Criminal Court, that the persecution
of any identifiable group on political, racial, national, ethnic caste, descent
and work, cultural, religious, gender, disability or other grounds constitutes
crimes against humanity and in view of the importance of combating impunity,
sign and ratify, if they have not yet done so, the Statute of the International
Criminal Court. At the same time, we
urge all States and governments to speedily conduct at national level,
investigations and prosecutions of war crimes in compliance with their
international obligations
254.
Abolish the death penalty, giving particular consideration
to the fact that throughout the world it is used disproportionately against
people belonging to racial, ethnic, national minorities and Indigenous Peoples.
255.
To ensure that
persons who are affected by racism, racist practices, xenophobia and related
intolerance have access to an effective criminal defence, which includes the
explanation of reasons for the arrest, detention, legal, proceedings and
charges, interpretation services, free of charge and at all stages of the
criminal process, and also provides access to diplomatic representatives for
Foreign nationals.
256.
To ensure the eradication of impunity within the criminal
justice system, particularly law enforcement, judicial and correctional
personnel, and in the public sector, through the establishment of internal and
external independent complaints, monitoring mechanisms and investigations, and
the imposition of disciplinary and criminal sanctions for transgressions.
257.
We call upon
States to ensure that selection processes for the appointment of Judges take
into account persons previously excluded on the grounds of race, gender,
ethnicity and colour, particularly those impacted by the intersectionality of
these grounds. Selection processes should also take into account that persons
appointed should be independent of political and executive, economical or
social influence.
258.
We call upon
States to revise and adopt laws and procedures regarding the manner in which
the judiciary operates, to ensure that judges act in an independent and
unbiased fashion, so as to apply the law equally, fairly and justly to all
individuals and groups, particularly those who are without any political,
social or economic power, and discriminated on grounds of racism, gender, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
259.
To ensure that effective mechanisms, including data
collection, are established to prevent the racial profiling of victims of
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, including a
clear prohibition of reliance on race ethnicity or other group identity, by by
law enforcement, prosecutorial or judicial officers, through a review of laws
and policies, to ensure that they are not discriminatory in purpose or impact,
particularly in prisons and other places of detention.
260.
To ensure that States enact legislation to prevent the
practice of treating minors as adults within the criminal justice system, as
this affects a disproportionately large number of persons belonging to
marginalized groups, particularly in the area of sentencing.
261.
To develop
policies and practices that prohibit the use of excessive force by law
enforcement officers, provide increased sanctions for use of excessive force
motivated by racial or other
discrimination, and to
require special training programs on non-lethal and proportionate levels
of force and alternatives to the use of force for law enforcement officers.
262.
To ensure strict and regular monitoring, inspection and
control mechanisms in all places of detention, including private and
alternative prisons, concrete and immediate steps to end the exploitation of
the labour of incarcerated people, full access to incarcerated poputlations to
educational programmes and facilities and timely and appropriate preventative,
diagnostic and curative physical and mental health services, and programs which
focus specifically on the reintegration of offenders into their communities
after their release from prison.
263.
Require that
all states ensure that Public officials, criminal justice and law enforcement
agencies act in a non-discriminatory
manner and that specific training programs on anti-racist, anti-xenophobic and
gender sensitive practices are designed for such officials and agencies. Such
officials and agencies should be required to publicly disavow hate speech, and
conduct that foments acts of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerance.
264.
To ensure,
that States comply with article 10 of the UN Convention against Torture (CAT),
by ensuring that educational measures explicitly address the implications of
the fourth purpose contained in the definition of torture (“discrimination of
any kind”) found in article 1 of the Convention, thus helping to prevent
torture, ill-treatment and any kind of violence against disproportionately
targeted groups and individuals.
265.
To ensure that asylum seekers are not subjected to criminal or other
punishment on the basis of any illegal entry or presence, that detention of
asylum seekers is used only as a measure of last resort (except that
unaccompanied minors should not be detained in any circumstances), subject to
periodic judicial review, with a maximum duration specified in national law,
with guarantee for the right of appeal against this detention, and with strict
and regular inspection by independent bodies. If detained, asylum seekers
should be held in special immigration detention centres, in conditions
appropriate to their status and in accordance with international standards, and
not with perons charged with or convicted of criminal offences.
266.
To ensure that
special attention is given to the rights of refugees and asylum seekers to
adequate and effective representation and prompt judicial proceedings, and that
groups, including non citizens such as documented or undocumented migrants,
asylum seekers and refugees, are provided necessary information and legal
assistance in the event of torture, ill treatment or any kind of violence,
perpetrated on the basis of race, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance.
DALITS AND OTHER COMMUNITIES DISCRIMINATED AGAINST ON
THE BASIS OF WORK AND DESCENT
269.
Enforce speedy
and effective legal and programmatic measures to abolish the traditional
practice of the Devadasi system and to rehabilitate the Dalit women and improve
the quality of their lives by giving them access to arable lands, proper
housing, gainful employment and education.
270.
Undertake a survey of the situation of the
Buraku people in Japan to ascertain the nature and extent of the discrimination
they continue to face despite the enactment of temporary ‘Special Measures’ by
the Government of Japan, and take all necessary legal, administrative and other
measures to eradicate such discrimination.
274.
Undertake mass-scale public awareness raising and educational
initiatives, with the active support of NGOs and other segments of civil
society, in order to promote positive changes in attitudes towards and within
communities discriminated against on the basis of work and descent based
discrimination, for which the necessary budget allocation shall be earmarked by
the State.
275.
Introduce measures of reparation for the
centuries-old wrongdoings committed against these communities through
legislation and appropriate machineries for the purpose of restitution,
monetary compensation, rehabilitation and for ensuring guarantees of
non-repetition.
277. NGOs to lobby to ensure that the relevant Governments are made accountable to Parliament and to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination for their implementation of policies and programmes aimed at eradicating work and descent based discrimination, including caste discrimination and untouchability, by constitutionally mandating their Governments to submit and openly discuss the annual reports of National Human Rights Institutions.
PEOPLE WITH
DISABILITIES
278.
We urge upon States to ensure specific
programs of optimal rehabilitation including access to assisted devices and
technology, education, recognition of informal skills, job integration without
discrimination and equitable remuneration.
279.
We call upon States to address the
stigmatization of disability through a wide range of strategies promoting
disability awareness and the rights of Persons with Disabilities to equitable
access to, and equitable share of national resources
280.
We call upon
States to develop relevant protocols to ensure representation and participation
of Persons with Disabilities in the decision making process of states and
communities at all levels.
281.
We call upon states to examine the intersection of race and
disability in order to develop and implement strategies aimed at the
elimination of disability based discrimination. Design, with full participation of Persons with
Disabilities, and implement and monitor all anti-racist policies as disability
sensitive.
282.
We urge the
United Nations and States members to acknowledge and redress the situation of
discrimination and stigmatization of Persons with Disabilities throughout the
human history.
283.
We urge them
to implement legislation, programs and services aiming their full enjoyment of
human rights with no distinction based on type of disability, color, race,
gender, age, national or ethnic origin, religion, language, culture, caste,
socio-economic status or any other status, property.
284.
Create the necessary
conditions in order to generate the establishment of regional and International
Networks on Disability in order to monitor the situation of Persons with
Disabilities around the world and to exchange information on these issues.
285.
We call upon States
at the national and international levels to ensure that Persons with
Disabilities are provided equitable opportunities to participate in all aspects
of events such as WCAR, NGO forums, etc, including in the roles of speakers,
rapporteurs, resource persons as well as in cultural events.
286.
We further call upon
states at the national and international level to ensure that such events are
held in venues which have full disability access.
287.
We call upon
all NGOs to, over the next year, conduct a comprehensive analysis of their
existing programs for physical and programmatic access for people with
disabilities and to make appropriate changes to eliminate barriers.
EDUCATION
Education as a means of redress should be viewed from the
broad perspective of encompassing as a comprehensive strategy:
·
Formal
Education;
·
Non Formal
education
·
Adult
Education;
·
Awareness
Campaigns;
·
Information
dissemination (access to information);
·
Education for
the transformation of Public Sector Officials; and
·
The Media and
information technology.
FORMAL AND NON-FORMAL
EDUCATION INCLUDING ADULT EDUCATION
288.
Implement the U.N. Decade for Human Rights Education 1995-2004, and
support its continuation for a further Decade with increased human and
financial resources.
289.
Ensure equal
access to education at all levels, including higher education, without discrimination
on any ground, for all persons irrespective of their legal status and abolish
policies and practices promoting or leading to racial segregation in education.
290.
Include human
rights education and human values as a dimension in the national curricula for
primary and secondary schools aiming for all pupils to have an awareness and
understanding of their rights and responsibilities. Include in national curricula for primary and secondary
school a human rights education with an emphasis on universal values aimed at
ensuring that learners have an
awareness their rights and responsibilities under domestic
constitutions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the
Rights of the Child and other international human rights instruments.
291.
Review the education curriculum with the purpose of
eliminating any elements that might promote racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance or reinforce negative stereotypes. Efforts
must also be made for the systematic collection of data, for planning and
evaluation, on educational quality and achievement. Further, we encourage a
holistic approach that includes a balance between a science and technology
based approach and an indigenous knowledge and philosophy based approach.
292.
Ensure that
education syllabi incorporate an
accurate history of the struggle of the people against colonialism, genocide,
slavery, apartheid, imperialism and patriarchal ideologies and caste-based
practices which have entrenched racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerance. In addition, ensure that education curricula highlight the
vital contributions of different cultures and groups, such as Africans and
African descendants, Indigenous peoples, migrants and other ethnic, racial,
cultural, religious and linguistic groups have played in building national
identities.
293.
Review and
develop the educational system to allow for learning and instruction to be
pursued in mother-tongue language(s), and to ensure that access to education is
not denied to vulnerable groups on the basis of linguistic ability and
criteria. In addition, to provide affirmative educational support from
marginalized groups, through such measures as extra-tutorial, pre-school
education, stipends for books and supplies, scholarships for vocational
professional and higher education and employment guidance and assistance.
294.
Educational
policies be pursued that includes cultural, racial and sexual diversity and
that recovers the historical contribution of women in the development of their
peoples, communities and nations.
295.
To provide to
all peoples and cultures in educational centres, access to technology in equal
conditions, especially in areas that have no access to higher education, for an
equitable and sustainable development and the eradication of racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
296.
Take measures
to increase the recruitment and promotion of members of minority groups as
teachers, trainers and care providers and guarantee effective equality of access
to the teaching profession.
Additionally, ensure that pupils, parents and teachers are given
information and training on Human Rights and are trained to deal with racist
incidents in schools with a full awareness of the remedies that are available.
297.
Encourage
businesses and multi-national corporations to promote understanding and
acceptance within their workplace through educational programs on the values of
cultural diversity, cross-cultural communication and non-discrimination, as
well as skills development for disadvantaged groups.
298.
Promote adult
education for the public at large, addressing the question of functional
illiteracy in minority languages.
299.
Efforts must
be made for the systematic collection of data for planning and evaluation,
disaggregated by race on educational quality and achievement.
300.
Comply and
take action on the commitment of States to the Dakar and Jomtien Declaration.
PUBLIC
AWARENESS AND ACCESS TO INFORMATION
States and governments should:
301.
Commit
themselves to undertaking public information to alert their societies to the
dangers of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance,
and to support initiatives of non-governmental organisations in this respect.
302.
Set up or
facilitate the provision of free access to sources of information on the rights
and remedies of victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerance, including all forms of religious intolerance.
303.
Organise and
support networks of information in the combat against racism and related
intolerance at local, national and regional level, and facilitate the key role
of NGO's in combating racism and related intolerance, acknowledging their
significant role in disseminating information and establishing networks among
target groups.
304.
Establish and
resource an independent body or bodies, which is tasked to:
·
Study the
historical and emerging causes of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerance; its effects and suitable remedies;
·
Focus on
combating all ideologies, policies and practices which lead to or incite
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance;
·
Undertake and
facilitate awareness raising campaigns informing all levels of society about
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance;
·
Integrate,
co-operate, encourage and support civil society bodies and NGO's in their work
in the eradication of racism, racial discrimination and related
intolerance.
TRAINING
AND EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC OFFICIALS
States and governments should:
305.
Conduct
nationwide campaigns to raise awareness among State organs, such as the
judiciary, and law enforcement agencies, public officials, including
legislators, as well as civil society organisations, including associations
involved with migrants and other vulnerable groups, concerning the provisions
of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination.
306.
Train police
and immigration officials in the application of international human rights
standards and that the successful completion of such training programmes be
made one of the criteria for promotion.
307.
Implement
training programmes on the dangers of racism and intolerance, including sexist
prejudices, disability discrimination stereotyping and multiple discrimination
and promote respect for cultural diversity by officials in all spheres of
public life, in particular the police and the military, the judiciary and other
agents of the administration of justice, teachers and other educationalists,
and officials working in the sphere of health and social welfare.
308.
Develop
specific measures for
agents of the criminal justice system, in particular the police and other law
enforcement officers, for their interactions with target groups and
minorities.
309.
Governments and states should promote
research addressing the roots and manifestations of all forms of contemporary
racism, including those not rooted in slavery, and to introduce educational
programmes for both civil servants and the general public based on the principle
of priority of human rights and multiculturalism.
ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM
310.
To promote
sustainable development, governments must develop, improve, and apply economic,
health, and social indicators to assess the quality of life for people impacted
by environmental racism, implement a just transition to clean, affordable and
sustainable modes of production, and pollution prevention, develop, apply, and
transfer to all States information and technologies that can reduce and
eliminate environmental health hazards and enable the thorough remediation of
contaminated sites, ensure medical services to persons suffering from toxic
exposure, develop laws which prohibit transboundary, especially from
industrialized to non-industrialized countries, and intra-border deposition of
toxics and polluting technologies, which degrade the environment and harm human
health, urge UN agencies, international and regional financial mechanisms, and
donor countries to reform their loan and grant-making practices and provide the
resources that enable all States to develop, improve, and implement the laws,
policies, and practices as called for by this program of action.
311.
Governments
must establish, comply with, and enforce international conventions, treaties,
declarations, national laws, and policies that ensure the fundamental rights of
all people to clean air, land, water, food and safe and decent housing. Such
legal instruments and policies must provide protection for urban and rural
communities, workers, especially agricultural laborers, from environmental
hazards that disproportionately impact people who have historically been
subjected to discrimination based on race, class, color, gender, caste,
ethnicity and/or national origin, ensure the right of all people to meaningful
participation in decision-making on environmental and health issues, including
culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach and education as well as
guarantee fair access to judicial and administrative proceedings and remedies
for environmental racism, and establish legally binding instruments and
mechanisms to hold states and corporations accountable to international and
domestica laws protecting human rights.
312.
Governments
must ensure that all governmental policies and practices adhere to the
principles of precautionary approach and polluter-pays as provided in the Rio
Declaration on Environment and Development. Develop and implement programs of
sustainable development with the involvement of those affected by environmental
racism and other non-state actors in order to redress and improve health,
environmental, and economic conditions. Establish programs to protect people
from environmental racism caused by military, governmental, and industrial
activities. Such programs must include protection from dangerous health
threats, remediation of environmental degradation caused by the military,
governments, and industry, as well as the disposal of toxic stockpiles that
meets 100% efficiency. Reform economic development policies with mechanisms for
prioritizing health, social, cultural, and religious/spiritual values.
313.
As full
partners in the eradication of environmental racism and quest for sustainable
development, the NGO Forum calls upon NGOs to: foster meaningful national and
international participation in public and private decision-making affecting
local communities and their environments; study the effects of environmental
racism on our communities; identify and publicize the effects of environmental
racism on workers and communities; educate civil society on the impacts of
environmental racism; advocate for public and private sector policies and laws
that protect natural resources, eliminate contamination affecting communities,
and restore contaminated environments; provide victims of environmental racism
with legal advisory assistance to access justice and attain fair compensation;
and develop regional environmental justice networks to share information,
strategies, lessons learned, engage in mutual solidarity actions, and monitor
the compliance and enforcement of the obligations of industry, governments, and
intergovernmental agencies to make possible equitable and sustainable
development. The NGO Forum calls on governments, intergovernmental agencies, UN
agencies and other financial
mechanisms, and philanthropic organizations to provide the financing and
technical assistance necessary to enable NGOs to carry out this action plan.
ETHNIC
AND NATIONAL MINORITIES
314.
We urge States
to fully recognize all fundamental human rights for members of ethnic and
national groups, and especially full equal citizenship for them in all fields
of public life. States should repeal legislation that facilitates
discrimination against ethnic and racial minorities and prevents them from
enjoying their identity, culture, religion and language or renders members of
minority communities stateless.
315.
We recommend
that governments and international organizations take urgent action to
eradicate the widespread discrimination and persecution of ethnic and national
groups, by implementing national public and social policies to redress
discrimination, including affirmative action programmes. In particular, States should set up
systems of government and administration that allow ethnic and national groups to participate in decision-making
and implementation. States engaged
in post-conflict transition should adopt systems of power sharing, based,
wherever possible, on parties rather than ethnicity.
316.
We urge states
to enact legislation, including constitutional protection, in order to ensure
cultural rights for all, and to protect and promote cultural diversity on their
territory. We recommend that governments develop intercultural educational
provisions and curricula that are culturally and linguistically appropriate. These should ensure that all groups and
individuals have an understanding of their multicultural society, and that they
share common values in the public domain, which evolves through democratic
participation. States should support and encourage organizations that promote
minority cultures and languages, and promote cultural exchanges and
understandings between different communities.
317.
Where an ethnic or national groups is
geographically concentrated, states should establish territorial autonomy to
provide for self-government, where and when the ethnic or national group desire it. The rights of other minorities,
especially smaller groups within these areas, should also be protected, and
individual rights always respected.
318.
The state has
an obligation to provide human security for all persons and must desist from
using its security and military apparatus to manipulate and create divisions
amongst minority communities. States must take immediate steps to reduce their
military budgets and channel these resources into the establishment of country-wide
multi-cultural education and media programmes and the promotion and protection
of minority rights.
319.
We urge States
to ensure that national human rights mechanisms independently and effectively
monitor the impact of development projects and programmes on ethnic and
national groups, while ensuring their conformity with international human
rights standards. These mechanisms should ensure the full participation of the
affected communities and of civil society in the monitoring process. Governments should adopt land
tenure and land use policies and regulations that are in conformity with
international standards on traditional land and territorial rights for ethnic
and national groups. The land
rights of pastoral, nomadic and forest peoples must be recognised and enshrined
in law.
320.
We recommend
that governments, and multilateral and bilateral development agencies
ensure the right of ethnic and
national groups to participate in the formulation, implementation and
evaluation of country strategies, development plans and programmes that affect
them. This participation
must be comprehensive and transparent through all stages of the project
cycle. The nature of participation
should be consistent with the traditional decision-making processes of ethnic
and national groups, if they so request. Equal consideration should be given to, inter alia, women, older people, persons
with disabilities, children and those living with HIV and AIDS within ethnic and national groups, allowing
them to express their own perception of rights and development needs.
321.
We call for
the development of a binding international convention on persons belonging to
national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, based on the UN
Declaration on the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious
and linguistic minorities.
322.
We call for
the creation of an international judicial mechanism whose mandate will be to
intervene in cases of widespread human rights abuses especially concerning the
rights for life and security of the members of of ethnic or national groups.
323.
We call for
the establishment of regional systems for the protection of ethnic and national groups where they
do not currently exist.
324.
We call on
States to set up institutions, such as minority ombudspersons, to ensure fair
treatment for ethnic and national
groupsand the promotion of ethnic
and national participation in political, economical, social and cultural life
as well as in any fields of public life.
325.
The
Palestinian Citizens of Israel should be recognized as a distinct national
minority group based on Article 27 of the ICCPR. We call for the implementation
of the recommendations and concluding comments regarding Israel issued by UN
Human Rights treaty or Charter based bodies such as the CESCR, the Human Rights
Committee and the Commission on human rights, which emphasized the Palestinian
citizens’ collective rights regarding lands, absentee property, uprooted
villages and the unrecognized villages.
326.
We express
deep concern at the systematic and institutionalized discriminatory policies
practiced against the Kurdish people. We condemn the crimes committed against
the Kurdish people, such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, denial of their
cultural and linguistic rights, mass disappearances, destruction of villages
and towns. In order to ensure Kurdish people’s rights for freedom, dignity and
self determination we call upon the international community and the concerned
states to end these policies, render justice, decide on reparations for the
victims and develop effective monitoring mechanisms. We demand that the right
of the Kurdish people to statehood be recognized
327.
We express our
concern for the Uyghur people of East Turkistan and recommend that the UN
establish a Working Group to investigate the serious allegations of mass
executions, torture and disappearance of Uyghur political and religious
prisoners.
GENDER
328.
All parties to
armed conflict are requested to abide by the rule laid down in the Rome
Statute, and that States and the international community should commit to
combat all forms of racial discrimination and violations of women’s human
rights especially during periods of armed conflict.
329.
States are
urged to conduct impartial and independent investigations and prosecutions of
in relation to rape or other forms of gendered crimes during conflict.
330.
Expose and
document rape as a war crime; undertake research and information gathering as
an instrument of the early warning system.
331.
Education
curriculum and armed forces (police) training to include: human rights
training, the culture of peace and gender sensitivity.
332.
Teaching
materials to remove stereotypes and historical biases, and strengthen the
teaching of the history of national and ethnic minorities, human migration,
colonialism and women’s human rights. Issues for women with disabilities should
be included in public education to eliminate disability discrimination.
333.
Promote
programs which provide legal services to women and provide women with education
on human rights.
334.
States to
prevent and stop violations of human rights violations against documented and
undocumented migrants and migrant workers, including gender-based violence and
human rights violations committed against women migrants and migrant workers.
335.
Urge states,
multinational corporations, international financial institutions and companies
to prevent and eliminate racially discriminatory policies and practices,
recognising the gender-differentiated experiences of women and girls in access
to employment. Women with disabilities to be provided with appropriate health
care services and respect while accessing reproductive health services.
336.
Partial
interpretation of traditional, social and cultural beliefs and the misuse of
religious and traditional beliefs is the cause of racism, racial discrimination
and related intolerance.
337.
States to
promote and protect the health rights of women and girls, and provide access to
adequate maternal and reproductive health services, particularly women with
disabilities.
GLOBALISATION
338.
We call upon the States to recognise that the exploitation
of young peoples labour, particularly those from indigenous and ethnic
minorities and immigrant groups is exacerbated by TNCs We urge States to
protect their citizens by regulating these practices.
339.
We insist that a code of conduct be developed and
implemented to recognise the value of the contribution made by young people and
to ensure the protection of their security and livelihood.
340.
We note with concern the punitive reaction of many
governments to the growing expression of community disquiet as to the
discriminatory effects of globalisation and urge them instead to support a
democratic and anti-racist globality. We urge States to ensure that their
decision making processes in relation to these issues both take into account
and are accountable to the communities that they represent.
341.
We urge governments to take whatever steps are appropriate
to ensure that the ownership of knowledge including territory medicines,
biodiversity and culture by indigenous peoples is officially recognised. We
call upon States to enforce and protect the intellectual property rights of
indigenous peoples, especially where the appropriation of this knowledge and
violation of these rights is an economic benefit to private organisations.
342.
We urge States to recognise the racial dimension inherent in
the unequal distribution of resources through the process of globalisation. The
racial aspect of globalisation is experienced at international, national and
local levels and requires organised preventative strategies at each of these
levels.
343.
We call upon the governments of the North to reinforce the
means of financial aid to southern countries to devote a proper part of the aid
to minority communities for their specific structural development and needs
such as education, training, helath care and housing.
344.
Support "humanitarian business" calling for the presence of
trained persons in governmental and international institutions to enhance
"corporate social responsibility".
HATE CRIMES
345.
We urge states
to extradite those guilty of hate crimes to face prosecution where appropriate,
regardless of nationality.
346.
Develop
policies and practices which encourage international protection for those
suffering from these heinous hate crimes.
Monitor and provide effective measures to ensure implementation of human
rights laws and UN conventions against hate crimes including sexual violence
and promote policies and practices that delegitimize racist hate propaganda and
hate groups.
347.
Encourage
identification of the new issues within the UN, including to establish a
commission and rapporteur desk to inquire into the issues raised here such as
ethnic cleansing, ethnic conflicts, ideological and cultural Daliticide, hate
crimes, and establish offices in different areas of the world.
348.
Consider more
powerful means (such as embargoes, economic sanctions) of dealing with
recalcitrant states that continue to perpetrate hate crimes, ethnic cleansing
and genocide, and promote and require protection for those involved in
religious organizations operating in any oppressive conditions
349.
Encourage the
UN to set up and fully fund a body to deal with propaganda and media distortion
related to racism and racial discrimination, hate crimes, systematic ethnic
cleansing, and genocide. Also require that education and training about
discrimination, hate crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide is provided by
governments and the UN to enable the liberation of oppressed people and to
increase understanding of these heinous crimes in the international community,
including requiring offices in the regions outside Geneva and New York. Require the UN to monitor and agitate
for this.
350.
NGOs should
agitate for national legislation to combat hate crimes and violence and punish
the perpetrators of such acts as well as push for a serious UN response to hate
crimes.
351.
All political
parties must promote inclusive policies and prohibit the use of negative images
of race, ethnicity, religion, language and caste.
352.
98 It is
important to monitor education to ensure it is inclusive and prevents
perpetuation of discrimination and hate crimes and also to monitor media for
accusations, generalisations, stigmatization, stereotyping and bias of
particular racial and ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples, castes, especially
women, children, those with disabilities, religious minorities and communities
advocating for social change and self determination other groups being targeted
by hate crimes
353.
NGOs must form
a coalition with others suffering from discrimination to fight hate crimes
against members their own communities.
It is important to get assistance, gain knowledge and get advice from
those in other countries who have already formed such coalitions.
HEALTH - HIV/AIDS
354.
Governments of
the developed countries should assure that state of the art medical and health
related technology and knowledge is made accessible to developing countries and
implement measures to fulfill the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the
highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. All governments should
provide effective mechanisms to eliminate discrimination in their health care
systems and establish effective means of monitoring these systems.
355.
Governments should promote and develop prevention and
treatment programs for diseases and conditions that disproportionately affect
vulnerable groups such as sickle cell anemia, diabetes, hypertension and other
chronic diseases. These programs
should be developed in conjunction with the private sector (particularly the
medical technology and pharmaceutical industry) and should pay special
attention to diseases and illnesses in developing countries and eliminate
racism and other forms of discrimination in their health care systems.
[sentence on racism of international pharmaceutical industry]
356.
Governments, nongovernmental organizations, the private
sector and the international community, including the World Health
Organization, should routinely and systematically collect race, gender and
socioeconomic class data related to health status and health care such data
should not be limited to census and vital statistics but should include data on
access and quality particularly service delivery, diagnosis and treatment,
facility availability, provider availability and other related health
activities and services. Special attention should be placed on the impact of
racial discrimination and to the publication of the data, the results and the
conclusion.
357.
The
Governments of the richest countries of the world should contribute at least
$10 billion annually to the UN Global Health Fund to develop and implement
comprehensive programs of prevention, treatment and community support to fight
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other infectious disease.
358.
In order to
effectively address HIV/AIDS, governments must implement a comprehensive,
multi-sectoral program consisting of the mutually reinforcing components of
prevention, treatment, care, community support and health infrastructure,
including culturally sensitive educational programs and specific programs aimed
at reducing the vulnerability of women to HIV infection which include
encouraging citizens to engage in voluntary testing, and giving special attention to developing
countries and vulnerable groups.
359.
Governments
must direct efforts to eradicate rape and all forms of sexual violence against
women. Combating HIV/AIDS requires among other things that States eliminate
legal and practical discrimination against women and girls and prevent,
investigate and punish acts of violence and discrimination against women. In
addition, in coordination with women’s rights and human rights groups, and
other relevant members of civil society, states should design, fund and
implement programmes targeted at increasing women’s awareness of HIV/AIDS.
360.
To ensure that young people have input
in all decisions about their own health, specifically about their sexual and
reproductive health, and to provide free health care services to those young
people from marginalized groups.
361.
Governments
should provide comprehensive HIV/AIDS Mother-to-child Transmission Programs that are freely accessible to
all. Such programs should involve informed consent, pre and post – test
counseling, treatment options, milk formula substitution, and access to support
groups.
362.
Governments should set up mechanisms that
assure the protection of vulnerable groups who participate in research . Those
mechanisms should include free and informed consent but must also include other
forms that protect vulnerable groups from exploitation
INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES
363.
Strongly
recommend the adoption of the draft U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples approved by the
Subcommission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities
in its Resolution 1994/45. The
draft O.A.S. Inter-American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
should be pursued and adopted with the full and equal participation of
Indigenous peoples, and must not contemplate lesser rights than those contained
in the U.N. Declaration. States must
recognize the collective rights of indigenous peoples.
364.
Recommends the
ratification by States of international conventions and agreements protective
of Indigenous rights, and we exhort those States that have not already ratified
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the
Genocide Convention and ILO
Convention 169 to do so. States
ratifying ILO Convention 169 should, in consultation with Indigenous Peoples,
seek to revise the Convention to overcome the Convention’s present
deficiencies.
365.
Any qualification of the right of
Indigenous Peoples to self-determination is racist and is contrary to the
fundamental principles of international law. The proposed caveat paragraph (currently paragraph 27) of
the official WCAR State Declaration is a manifestation of racism against
Indigenous Peoples and should be deleted in its entirety.
366.
Recommends
that States examine their constitutions, law, legal systems, and policies to
identify and eradicate both explicit and inherent racism towards Indigenous
Peoples
367.
Recommend that
States eliminate laws and policies that deny or limit Indigenous land and
resource rights, including rights to subsoil resources, and affirmatively
recognize Indigenous Peoples as the rightful owners and managers of their lands
and resources. States must take immediate
and effective measures to end the devastation and contamination of Indigenous
waters, lands, territories and natural resources and the dispossession and
denial of access to these waters, lands, territories and natural resources.
368.
Demands that
States provide appropriate remedies for breaches of rights and treaties. Remedies for such breaches shall be
determined with the full and equal participation and consent of the Indigenous
peoples involved. Conflicts and
disputes which cannot otherwise be settled should be submitted to competent
international bodies.
369.
Demands that
all states immediately release all Indigenous political prisoners. States must also recognize Indigenous
justice systems and end
discrimination in State criminal and civil justice systems.
370.
Calls upon
States to recognize, respect and ensure mechanisms for the development of
traditional medicine, and ensure accessible and effective inter-cultural health
systems.
371.
Urges States
to commit financial resources to anti-racism education and media campaigns to
promote anti-racism awareness, the values of acceptance, tolerance, diversity
and respect for the cultures of all Indigenous Peoples. In particular, States should strive to
promote an accurate understanding of the histories and cultures of Indigenous
Peoples. States must ensure full
access to inter-cultural education at all levels.
372.
Urges States
to penalize degrading images of Indigenous Peoples, in particular Indigenous
women. States should guarantee to
Indigenous Peoples access to the media and assist in the development of Indigenous media.
373.
Urges States
to recognize the languages of Indigenous peoples and devote resources and
establish programs to ensure the survival, promotion, and continuation of such
languages. States, in agreement
with Indigenous peoples, should design and implement language and education
policies that promote the right of Indigenous peoples to assert their cultures
and languages.
374.
Demands that
States take immediate and effective measures to end the devastation and
contamination of Indigenous waters, lands, territories and natural resources
and the dispossession and denial of access to these waters, lands, territories
and natural resources.
Environmental racism specifically affects Indigenous Peoples’ traditional
means of subsistence, their
cultural and spiritual practices, and
their sacred and historical sites.
375.
Recommends
that Indigenous governments and States along with indigenous women and with
their full and equal participation, develop programs to promote their civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights; to end disadvantage due to
gender and race; to address urgent problems affecting them in all areas of
life, including education and employment, health and disability , traditional
knowledge, justice, environment and biodiversity; and to end policies of forced
sterilization and the use of violence in the public and private spheres.
376.
Calls upon
States to end the militarization of Indigenous Peoples’ lands and territories
and the forced relocation of Indigenous Peoples. The grave situation of the
militarization of Indigenous lands and territories, and resultant massive
violation of their civil,
political, economic, social, and cultural rights must end. States have a duty to restore lands already
contaminated through military use.
377.
In all
measures to be taken by States that may affect Indigenous Peoples there must be
full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples. Consultation on an equal basis must be
undertaken by the State with the Indigenous Peoples affected and such measures
must not be implemented without
their free and informed consent.
378.
Indigenous
Peoples freely express their own identity and exercise their inherent rights
free from all forms of discrimination, which necessarily entails respect for
their human rights and fundamental freedoms. Efforts are now being made to secure universal recognition
for those rights in processes in the U.N. and the Organization of American States to elaborate declarations on
the rights of Indigenous Peoples, which include the following: to denominate
themselves under their own names as a collective; to participate freely and on
an equal footing with a State’s political, economic, social and cultural
development; to maintain their own forms of organization, lifeways, cultures
and traditions; to maintain and use their own languages and names; to maintain
their own legal and economic structures in the areas where we live; to take
part in the development of their educational and health systems and programmes;
to manage and develop their lands and natural resources, including hunting,
gathering and fishing rights; and to have access to justice on a basis of
equality, recognizing their own forms of administration of justice.
379.
Calls for a
U.N. World Conference on Indigenous Peoples.
380.
Recommends
that the U.N. complete, in coordination with Indigenous Peoples, a
comprehensive review of the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous
Peoples.
381.
Urges States
and financial and development institutions to mitigate the negative effects of
globalization by examining how their polices and practices affect Indigenous
Peoples, and to ensure that their policies and practices conform to human
rights standards and contribute to
the eradication of racism by including the participation of Indigenous Peoples
in development projects in accordance with the principle of informed consent
and Indigenous self-government; by democratizing international financial
institutions; by developing enforceable codes of conduct for transnational
corporations; and by consulting with Indigenous Peoples in any matter that may
affect their physical, spiritual or cultural integrity.
382.
Recommends
that the U.N. effectively implement the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples,
respecting the processes of the Indigenous Peoples in making nominations to the
Forum. This should be done in the
following manner:
383.
The U.N.
should provide sufficient additional funding to carry out the mandate of the
forum.
384.
The President
of ECOSOC should establish an autonomous Secretariat including Indigenous
participation in the Secretariat.
385.
The U.N.
should provide full financial
support and resources to the Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples.
LABOUR
386.
Racism
requires systematic responses at all levels. These responses must be developed
recognizing the central role of those effected by racism and the need to be
measurable and monitored for impact. These responses must include the
ratification and implementation of existing international norms, in particular
the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and
the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women and the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and Members of their Families; ILO Convention 111 and other core labour
standards, C169 (Indigenous and Tribal People Convention), C143 (Migrant
Workers Convention) and the Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights.
387.
Legal Measures
to combat racism and gender discrimination must also include specific attention
to employment rights including pay equity and assurances that all workers have
recourse to labour law protections. The burden of proof in race discrimination
litigation should also lay with those accused of racism.
388.
Effect
improved gathering of data for the more effective policy formulation and
strategic planning particularly in the field of employment, access to social
provision and services including housing, education, health etc. This
information and consequent policy development should be systematically shared
at regional and international levels.
389.
Education,
both formal and informal, is one of the cornerstones of the strategies required
to eliminate racism in the workplace and in society as a whole. Education
strategies must include detailed and measurable plans by both governments and
NGOs.
390.
Governments
must prioritise financial resources to ensure that anti racism education is an
integrated and core part of the curriculum within schools. This should be
alongside measures which should be taken to ensure that teachers are more
reflective of the communities which they represent. Governments should require
schools to develop comprehensive and measurable anti racist plans of action
which include monitoring arrangements to identify progress.
391.
Governments
must prioritise financial resources, for NGOs, to support anti racism education
programmes and initiatives. These programmes should include education
programmes in the workplace.
392.
A central part
of the process of the Durban plan of action, and follow up, must be a
comprehensive process of monitoring the change process. Trade unions and other
NGOs must be a comprehensive process of monitoring the change process. Trade
unions and other NOGOs must be an integral part of this process. Therefore
mechanisms for ensuring the involvement of NGOs and, in particular, those
effected by racism, must be established by governments and subject to regular
reports.
393.
NGOs must
establish mechanisms for ensuring that the follow up to the Conference can be
co-ordinated and fed through the structures established through discussion with
governments.
394.
Governments
must prioritise resources to support NGOs in the follow up process to the
Conference. The allocation of resources should prioritise the need to involve
those who are directly effected by racism.
DOCUMENTED AND UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS, MIGRANT WORKERS,
REFUGEES, ASYLUM SEEKERS, STATELESS, DISPLACED PERSONS AND MEMBERS OF THEIR
FAMILIES
395.
Effectively keep and use disaggregated
statistics to assess the complexities of modern migration patterns.
396.
Eliminate discriminatory treatment by
public authorities, in particular police, other law enforcement officers,
immigration officers as well as de facto immigration officials such as airport
and airline employees, of persons from countries of immigration, asylum seekers
and undocumented persons and to ensure that these groups are provided with
necessary information and legal assistance in the event of torture, ill
treatment or any kind of violence perpetrated on the basis of racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
397.
Provide gender-sensitive human rights
education and anti-racism training programmes for key professionals frequently
in contact with immigrants and asylum seekers, including customs and
immigration officials.
398.
Provide education and capacity building
for refugees, asylum seekers, documented and undocumented migrant workers and
migrants on their rights, responsibilities, and avenues for redress.
399.
Recognize the professions, qualifications,
titles, and degrees of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrant workers, during
the period in which they are waiting for legalisation of their status.
400.
Recognize and give value to
foreign-trained and foreign-educated migrants, migrant workers, refugees, and
asylum seekers, stateless and internally displaced persons thereby enabling
them to use and improve their skills.
Documented and Undocumented
Migrants, Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
401.
Ensure the protection of economic,
social, cultural, civil and political rights, including the right to free
mobility and assembly, the access to social services, health care, education,
political participation, including voting rights at all levels, of documented
and undocumented migrants, migrant workers and members of their families and to
enact and enforce legislation and policies in this respect without delay.
402.
Initiate and
review policies and regulations that facilitate the regularization and
decriminalisation of undocumented migrants, and in the meantime ensure respect
for their non-derogable human rights and freedoms, including the right to life,
the right not to be tortured, the right to equal access to justice and to
security, as well as to other basic rights such as, their right to education,
housing, health (with due attention to persons with disabilities), living
wages, employment, access to culture and the environment without fear of
arbitrary detention and summary deportation.
403.
Actively
promote and support self-initiatives and non-governmental organizations working
to organize and unionize documented and undocumented migrants and migrant
workers, allocate sufficient resources, especially to women’s groups, to build
their capacities to more effectively address human rights violations within their
community.
404.
Protect the
equal rights of migrant women who are particularly vulnerable to violence,
including sexual and domestic violence and other forms of abuse, ensure free
and full access to remedies for human rights violations and grant them their own
independent status in all immigration and migration matters.
405.
Recognize the
particular vulnerability of migrant and refugee children, particularly
unaccompanied and abandoned children, and appoint qualified guardians to
children separated from their parents or otherwise unaccompanied by a
responsible adult. Furthermore grant citizenship to children of migrant workers
in the receiving countries.
406.
Recognise that
there are diverse ways to establish family relationships and grant and
facilitate entry for purposes of family reunification and ensure that, once
admitted, family members enjoy secure and independent residence status,
including the full enjoyment of social, economic, cultural, civil and political
rights.
407.
Develop and implement effective gender-sensitive
measures and programmes to ensure that the human rights of foreign domestic
workers are protected from any form of discrimination, violence, physical and
sexual abuse the rights in respect to their trade-unions, professional and
technical associations, as well as the rights to fair remuneration are
guaranteed and implemented, including to right to redress mechanisms for these
rights.
Establish policies that will hold sending and
receiving country governments accountable while also enabling them to monitor
the activities of non-state agencies such as private recruitment agencies and
syndicates.
Refugees, Asylum
Seekers, Stateless and Displaced Persons
408.
Develop
programmes and measures for refugees and asylum seekers, with particular
attention to women, children, persons with disability and the elderly, that
adhere to and are guided by the right of everyone to seek and enjoy in other
countries asylum from persecution’ as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, and ensure the implementation of national legislation and
policies in relation to refugees and asylum seekers be based on a full and
inclusive application of the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Optional Protocol
relating to the Status of Refugees in light of its object and purpose, in
particular the Convention’s Article 3 on non-discrimination and the full
respect of the principle of ‘non-refoulement’, as well as all relevant regional
Conventions on the protection of human rights.
409.
Implement the United Nations Guidelines for Internal Displacement and
ensure that national governments, in collaboration with international
governmental and non-governmental agencies provide adequate statistics on internally displaced persons.
410.
Review current
national legislation and measures and refrain from introducing any further
measures which may be contrary to the spirit of the 1951 Convention and its
1967 Protocol and can prevent refugees from accessing protection such as visa
regimes, restrictive interpretation of the Convention, posting of screening
officers in countries of origins and airports, detention of asylum seekers,
carriers’ sanctions, readmission and involuntary repatriation practices, and
‘safe third country’ practices.
411.
Ensure that
legislation and policies take due account of and abide by the legal
interpretations, policy directives, guidelines and recommendations of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and recognize the role of
this body as guarantor of the correct application of the 1951 Convention.
412.
Acknowledge that persecution motivated by
racism, racial discrimination and ethnicity can include the specific targeting
of women and recognize this as a basis for granting asylum and eliminate
limitations on the right of women to transmit their nationality to their children,
on an equal basis with men.
413.
Respect and implement the economic,
social, cultural, civil and political rights of refugees, asylum seekers and
internally displaced persons.
414.
Ensure that children of refugees, asylum
seekers and internally displaced persons are immediately registered at birth,
to suppress instances of statelessness and ulterior related discrimination.
415.
Take immediate measures to correct the
systemic and structural imbalances in burden sharing, resource allocation and
sharing of responsibilities in hosting and giving assistance to refugees in all
parts of the world.
416.
Terminate the
covert and overt discriminatory practices undergirding the imbalanced response
to humanitarian assistance in the various world regions, and between refugee groups,
with due respect to the specific needs of refugees in refugee camps, shelters
or other housing facilities while providing for their integration or volunteer
resettlement to the country of origin and also enabling them to reach their
families in other countries of arrival while they are waiting for recognition
of their refugee status.
PALESTINIANS AND PALESTINE
417.
Call for the
immediate enforcement of international humanitarian law, specifically the
Fourth Geneva Convention 1949, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories through
the adoption of all measures to ensure its enforcement including all measures
employed against the South African Apartheid regime. Call for the immediate convening of the High Contracting
Parties to implement this process in fulfillment of their obligation to ensure
respect for the Convention in all circumstances. Also call for the immediate deployment of an independent,
effective international protection force for Palestinian civilians and the
dismantlement of the illegal Jewish Israeli colonies (settlements) and a
complete withdrawal of the colonial military occupation.
418.
Call upon the
United Nations to ensure the implementation of the various UN resolutions on
the Occupied Palestinian Territories including the withdrawal of the Israeli
colonial military occupation (of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including
Jerusalem), the right of return for refugees, and for the protection for
refugees of the UN High Commission for Refugees until such time as they may be
able to exercise their right to return and in accordance with UN resolution
194. Also call for the
reinstitution of UN resolution 3379 determining the practices of Zionism as
racist practices which propagate the racial domination of one group over
another through the implementation of all measures designed to drive out other
indigenous groups, including through colonial expansionism in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories (in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, including
Jerusalem), and through the application of discriminatory laws of return and
citizenship, to obliterate their national identity and to maintain the
exclusive nature of the State of Israel as a Jewish state to the exclusion of
all other groups. Also call for
the repeal of all discriminatory laws within the state of Israel, including
those of return and citizenship, which are part of the institutionalized racism
and Apartheid regime in Israel.
419.
Call for the
establishment of a war crimes tribunal to investigate and bring to justice
those who may be guilty of war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing
and the crime of Apartheid which amount to crimes against humanity that have
been or continue to be perpetrated in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian
Territories.
420.
Call for an
increased awareness of the root causes of the Israel’s belligerent occupation
and systematic human rights violations as a racist, apartheid system, through
relevant UN agencies working closely with international civil society networks
to widely disseminate information including educational packs for schools and
universities, films and publications.
421.
Call for the
establishment of a UN Special Committee on Apartheid and Other Racist Crimes
Against Humanity perpetrated by the Israeli Apartheid regime to monitor and to
report Apartheid and other racist crimes, and to recommend the implementation
of measures to combat Apartheid and other racist crimes.
422.
Call for the
establishment of programmes and institutions to combat the racist media
distortion, stereotyping and propaganda, including the demonizing and
dehumanizing of Palestinians as all being violent and terrorists, and
undeserving of human rights protections.
Call for the correction of misleading information surrounding their
status as indigenous peoples, the history of the violations perpetrated against
them, and the on-going distortion of the facts and nature of the peace
negotiations.
423.
Call for the
launch of an international anti Israeli Apartheid movement as implemented
against South African Apartheid through a global solidarity campaign network of
international civil society, UN bodies and agencies, business communities and
to end the conspiracy of silence among states, particularly the European Union
and the United States.
424.
Call upon the
international community to impose a policy of complete and total isolation of
Israel as an apartheid state as in the case of South Africa which means the
imposition of mandatory and comprehensive sanctions and embargoes, the full
cessation of all links (diplomatic, economic, social, aid, military cooperation
and training) between all states and Israel. Call upon the Government of South Africa to take the lead in
this policy of isolation, bearing in mind its own historical success in
countering the undermining policy of “constructive engagement” with its own
past Apartheid regime.
425.
Condemnation
of those states who are supporting, aiding and abetting the Israeli Apartheid
state and its perpetration of racist crimes against humanity including ethnic
cleansing, acts of genocide.
We call on all states to exert pressure
on the Chinese government to open negotiations with the Tibetan government in
exile, headed by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, in order to find a
mutually acceptable and lasting solution to the situation in Tibet.
We also call for the implementation of
the UN General Assembly resolutions on Tibet passed in 1959, 1961 and 1965,
affirming the right to self-determination of the Tibetan peoples and for the
creation of mechanisms to resolve the foreign occupation of Tibet.
We call upon all States and governments
to urge the Chinese government to begin the process of compensating the Tibetan
peoples, for the destruction of their religious sites, religion, culture and
environment over the past five decades. This process should include
compensation for the loss of Tibetan natural resources, taking the form of
timber, wildlife products, mineral resources and Tibetan artifacts.
The curtailment of religious freedom
through severe restrictions and systematic attack on their religious institutions
has resulted in the ‘religious cleansing’ of the Tibetan peoples.
RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE
426.
Welcome the
initiative of the UN Secretary General in convening the Millenium Peace Summit
for World Spiritual and Religious Leaders in celebration of the 20th
anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of
Intolerance Based on Religion or Belief and looking forward to its full
implementation by all States.
427.
Religious
intolerance has often exacerbated systemic discrimination and racism resulting
in racial violence and intersectional systems of oppression based on, but not
limited to, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, class and economic
status, HIV/AIDS and health related issues and abilities;
428.
All States
should guarantee the right to freedom of expression, thought, conscience,
religion and belief without any distinction, exclusion or restriction or
preference and that States are obliged to protect the right of individuals and
groups to profess and practice their own religion or belief as well as to
ensure their right to effectively participate in civil, political, economic,
social and cultural life.
429.
All States are
encouraged to adopt legislation, policies and measures that fulfill the
requirements of N human rights instruments concerning freedom of religion or
belief and to employ effective mechanisms that ensure their implementation and
review national legislation that is discriminatory to religious minorities.
430.
All States are
encouraged to fully cooperate with the competent UN mechanisms in this field
and particularly to extend an open invitation to the UN Special Rapporteur on
Religious Intolerance and to provide the Special Rapporteur with their full
support, cooperation including access to minority religious communities and
individuals.
431.
The UN
Commission on Human Rights is to be requested to establish a monitoring unit on
religious intolerance within the Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights and in cooperation with the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance and
that such a unit is to be adequately staffed and funded.
432.
All States
should take effective measures against politicization of religious institutions
as well as other areas of social and economic life, as this may lead to
marginalizing dissenting religious communities and individuals, and they should
particularly ensure that women’s basic human rights are not denied or in any
way limited by the use of religion or belief.
433.
All States are
called upon to refrain from the perpetration of religion-based intolerance and
discrimination, including when linked to race, through a systematic
stereotyping of religious minorities in the media, educational curricula and
textbooks leading to their further marginalization and distortions.
434.
Religious
communities and leaders are called upon to play a positive role in bringing
spiritual and ethical insights and a commitment to education to effect and
promote reconciliation, healing and liberation to address historical and
present day inequalities and discrimination;
ROMA PEOPLE
435.
We urge the United Nations to elaborate and propose for adoption to its
members states legally binding instruments on the Roma rights, such as an
International Charter on Roma Rights, in order to protect and guarantee the
collective rights of the Roma people.
436.
We urge the United Nations to provide adequate Roma representation in
relevant internaoitnal and intergovernmental organizations by receiving seats
in the United Nations as elected representatives of the Roma, on equal footing
with the other nations of the world.
437.
We recommend the United Nations and other regional bodies to provide for
adequate Roma representation in relevant international, regional and
intergovernmental organizations by receiving seats in the United Nations as
elected representatives of the Roma.
438.
We call upon governments to review, adopt, strengthen and enforce national
legislation prohibiting racial discrimination against Roma as well as to adopt
and implement affirmative action policies for Roma in employment, education,
housing, social security and healthcare services, in order to protect the
members of these communities and to prevent and punish such practices.
Furthermore, appropriate monitoring bodies, with a local network, need to be
established to ensure that governments fullfil their human rights obligations.
439.
We recommend States to include the issue of combating
racial discrimination against Roma as one of the major topics in bilateral and
multilateral treaties.
440.
We urge the United Nations, Council of Europe, and the Organisation of
American States to establish under thier jurisdiction, a Permanent Roma Forum,
as a body of elected representatives, which shall monitor and report on the
Roma situation in the world and on the implementation of international standards
addressing the Roma issue.
441.
We welcome the CERD General Recommendation XXVII „Discrimination on Roma”
and urge governments to implement these recommenations.
442.
We urge governments to ensure the
institutional development and full participation to central and local
administration, to ensure the right to free movement of the Roma, to support
the preservation and development of the Roma cultural identity, and to provide
adequate camping places with all necesary facilities for those Roma who
preserve the nomadic life-style.
443.
We urge Governments to take concrete measures and support the full development of the Roma children and youth
positive self-esteem, the deconstruction of their internalized stigma and the
Roma identity awareness, by establishing identity assertive education
institutions and by promoting the Roma history, Romani as teaching language and
ethnic assertion education programs in the mainstream school.
444.
We call upon
States to provide the Roma children with equal access to quality education by
the desegregation of the schooling system, by enabling Roma parents to take
part to school processes and decision; by training and employing Roma teachers
and school mediators; and by the development of a more sensitive, inclusive and
flexible education systems and school curricula, including non-formal education
and distance education, internet classes in places for encampment.
445.
We urge
governments to fully support the intercultural education, including the
provision of adequate funding, for the inclusion of the Roma history in text
books and school curricula.
446.
We strongly urge
governments to draw lessons from history, to acknowledge and publicly condemn
the Roma slavery and the German Holocaust against Roma during the Second World
War, and we also call upon States which are responsible of these crimes against
humanity to fully assume their responsibility, to provide public appology and
prompt, adequate and fair reparation and compensation to Roma communities and
individuals who were victims of such policies and practices.
447.
We urge the United Nations to use its influence to immediately stop the
Germany policy of Roma deportation
to Former Yugoslavia, a region of ethnic cleansing and war.
448.
We urge States and
inter-governamental bodies to immediately call upon the involved forces to stop
the genocide and the ethnic cleansing against Roma in countries where it takes
place. Beginning in 1999, Roma were ethnically cleanesed from Kosovo by ethnic
Albanians. Kosovo is the worst catastrophy for Roma since the Holocaust.
TRAVELLERS
States
and Governments should pay particular attention to and adopt immediate and
concrete measures to eradicate the widespread discrimination and persecution
targeting Travellers including through the establishment of structures and processes,
in partnership between the public authorities and representatives of the
Traveller Communities.
SEXUAL ORIENTATION
449. Revise
existing human rights instruments and ensure the explicit incorporation of the
respect for, protection, promotion, and fulfillment of self-determined sexual
orientation and gender identity; and take immediate steps to implement all four
core responsibilities incumbent on all governments with regard to human rights,
both civil and political rights, and economic, social, and cultural rights: to
respect these rights, that is not to violate them directly; to protect these
rights, that is to ensure that they are not violated by other parties; to
promote tolerance and awareness of these rights; and to fulfill these rights,
that is to ensure that all persons have the conditions and resources to enjoy
these rights freely, fully, and equally.
450. Develop an
International Reparations Instrument in accordance with universally recognised
human rights norms, whereby all groups and individuals, regardless of race,
gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, religion, culture, language,
disability, economic status, political opinion or national origin who have
fallen victim of human rights violations, and in particular discrimination, have
the right to reparation.
451. Enact in their
Constitutions, clauses guaranteeing non-discrimination and the enjoyment of all
individual and collective rights by all persons regardless or race, age,
gender, sex, gender identity, sex, ethnic or social origin, sexual orientation,
disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.
452.
Anti-discrimination policies should be based on the
principle of mainstreaming the issue of combating unfair discrimination by
including into all stages of decision-making:
·
guidelines
·
participation
of target groups
·
positive
actions
·
implementation
mechanisms
·
monitoring and
impact assessment
·
review of
policies
·
time frames
·
measurable
goals
·
resource
allocation
·
transparent
accountability mechanisms
453. Extend and strengthen
programmes on the prevention of HIV/AIDS, including educational programmes that
are sensitive to diversity of genders, sexual orientation, and cultures.
454. Pursue
educational policies that include cultural, racial and sexual diversity; and
that recover the historical contribution of women in the development of their
peoples, communities and nations.
455.
Revise ILO Convention 111 to include sexual orientation as a
ground protected from discrimination.
456.
Convene a UN World Conference on discrimination based on
sexual orientation and gender identity.
457.
Draft a declaration for the elimination of all forms of
discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
458.
Repeal those laws that criminalize consensual same-sex
relations.
459.
Be created and operated with the participation and
representation of all affected populations and peoples.
460.
All States develop immigration laws and policies that
recognize and protect refugees and asylum seekers who are fleeing persecution
on the basis of their gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
TRAFFICKING
461.
We call on governments to address their accountability in
the growth of sex tourism and to take measures to prevent trafficking in
persons and sexual exploitation, and to promote and ensure effective legal remedies.
462.
We call on
governments to recognize the long-term psychological harms of trafficking and
channel resources for the support of victims including counselling, education,
health, shelter, voluntary repatriation/resident status and live hold.
463.
We call on all
states and governments to address the different treatment of trafficked
persons, especially women and children of marginalized groups, in terms of
protection, recognizing that trafficked persons experience multiple
discrimination.
464.
We call on all
states and governments to ratify and implement all international and regional
instruments relevant to trafficking in persons, and enact and implement
national legislation, making consent of victims irrelevant, targeting and
prosecuting all actors who profit and gain from trafficking to prostitution,
including buyers.
465.
We call on all
states and governments to recognize the accountability of military forces in
trafficking, particularly in the U.S. bases and the U.N. peacekeeping forces.
466.
We call on all
states to establish policies to limit and monitor the activities of non-states
agencies such as recruitment agencies.
467.
Implement
policies and the necessary legislation prohibiting trafficking of persons. These policies should:
·
Be developed
as regional policies;
·
Provide the
appropriate resource allocation for enforcement;
·
Pay particular
attention to the trafficking of children, women for sexual exploitation, debt
bondage and exploitative working conditions;
·
Assist the
victims of trafficking; and
·
Elaborate
harsh punitive measures for trafficking syndicates
·
Ratify the UN
Trafficking Protocol, attached to the main convention on transnational
organized crime, Stockholm agenda for action (Addressing sexual Exploration of
Children)
·
YOUNG PEOPLE,
CHILDREN AND THE GIRL CHILD
468.
We call on all states and governments to introduce
compulsory anti-racism content with an intersectional analysis in the school
curriculum and orientate teachers to promote anti-racism and self and mutual
respect amongst all race and ethnic groups. Furthermore, to consult and allow
children, young people, their caretakers and their families to participate in
and influence the ongoing racial equality aspects of teacher training so as to
promote public awareness, embracing and promoting cultural diversity and
respect for human rights.
469.
We call on all states and governments to improve reporting
at the national level on racial and caste discrimination and its effects on
children and young people, by actively collecting detail disaggregated and
gendered statistical data on issues that affect children and young people.
States should also support the involvement of children and young people in such
a process. In addition, states should encourage national and international
human rights institutions and NGOs to do the same and make such information
available (and place greater emphasis on children and young people) in reports
to CERD and other relevant treaty bodies.
We call on all
states to ratify the Additional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child (CRC) which prohibits the enrolment of children under the age of 18 into
the armed forces and for all states and the UN to ensure its enforcement.
470.
Urge governments to allow children, adolescents and youth to
be conscientious objectors as a right to voluntary participation in any
category of the military field, without risking loss of citizenship rights or
social, penal or military coercion.
471.
Utilising existing structures, such as the UN Youth unit, to
create effective new and existing networks that encourage, develop and sustain
the talents of all children and young people. The States should ensure that
young people are greatly supported in participating in the development and
implementation of the five year review of the WCAR and will be encouraged, resourced
and supported to contribute to the elimination of racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, both at international and
domestic levels, emphasizing the value of children’s and young peoples’
experience and encouraging exchange programs that allow all children and young
people to work with their peers from all over the world, in order to enhance
international bonds of solidarity.
472.
Urge States, governments and communities to implement the
recommendations of the regional seminar of experts on Racial and ethnic
conflict prevention in Africa, held in Addis Abbaba in October 2000, with
particular attention to the implementation of the rights of the girl child to
live within the family, to grow in good health, to access health services, to
be provided quality education and play an active role within the community.
473.
Urge all states and governments to develop a gendered
approach in school curricula, which include references on the specificity of
the girl child.