BRIEFING BY THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL, FOREIGN AFFAIRS ON PREPARATIONS FOR THE WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RASICM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, XENOPHOBIA AND RELATED INTOLERANCE (28 MARCH 2001)

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BRIEFING BY THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL, FOREIGN AFFAIRS
ON PREPARATIONS FOR THE WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST
RASICM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, XENOPHOBIA AND
RELATED INTOLERANCE (28 MARCH 2001)
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PREVIOUS WORLD CONFERENCES ON RACISMThe first
World Conference to Combat Racism and Racial
Discrimination was held in Geneva in 1978, at the
mid-point of the first Decade on racism.The
second World Conference to Combat Racism and
Racial Discrimination, held in Geneva, 1-12
August 1983, reviewed and assessed the activities
undertaken during the Decade and formulated
specific measures to ensure the implementation of
United Nations instruments to eliminate racism,
racial discrimination and apartheid.Between
1973 and 2003, the UN designated three decades
for action to combat racism and racial
discrimination and to ensure support for people
struggling for racial equality.
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- The Programme of Action for the First Decade
was structured around measures which should be
taken to implement the United Nations
instruments concerning the elimination of racism
and racial discrimination and the pursuit of a
worldwide education campaign.- The Programme of
Action for the Second Decade emphasized
recourse procedures for victims of racial
discrimination. Its programme included a world
public information campaign for human rights and
the drafting by the Commission of Human Rights
of a model national legislation to guide
Governments in the enactment of legislation
against racial discrimination.- The Programme
of Action for the Third Decade, which ends in
2003, underlines the pivotal role of human rights
education in securing respect for human rights.
It has been marked by a broadened view of the
problem of racism and
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the realization that every society in the world
is affected and hindered by discrimination.THE
THIRD WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM (WCAR)The
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights approached
South Africa to host the World Conference. In
its reply to the UN, South Africa agreed to host
the World Conference on the understanding that
the Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights will play a key role towards ensuring that
adequate funds are secured for this venture. In
December 1999, the General Assembly welcomed the
offer by South Africa to host the conference and
appealed to all member states to contribute
generously to the voluntary fund for the
Conference.The Conference will be open to all
UN member states, observers of regional
commissions or organizations, specialized
agencies, other intergovernmental organizations,
NGOs, UN
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Secretariat and representatives of UN organs and
other persons invited by the UN.The World
Conference will extend over a period of eight
consecutive days including a high-level segment.
The UN has set 31 August to 7 September 2001, as
the most appropriate dates in the UN calendar.
The first three days are designated for the
high-level segment, while the last five days will
be for senior meetings.Each of the five UN
regional groups held a preparatory regional
conference. Two have already been scheduled, in
Strasbourg in October 2000 and in December 2000.
The African regional meeting took place in
Senegal in January 2001 and the Asia's in
February 2001.
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THE WORLD CONFERENCE AND SOUTH AFRICAS ROLEA
very large number of delegations and NGOs are
expected to attend the conference. Given the
particular significance of the question of racism
for South Africa, the host country is expected to
play a substantial role.Traditional UN practice
confers on the host country the right to
designate a chair (usually at ministerial level).
South Africas Minister for Foreign Affairs has
been designated as the Chairperson of the WCAR.
Mrs Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights has accordingly been nominated as
the Secretary-General of the Conference. The
chair will work closely with the
Secretariat-General of the Conference to produce
both an efficient conference and a declaration
and program of action that contributes to the
combating of racism.Cabinet has established an
Inter-Ministerial Committee (chaired by the
Minister of Foreign Affairs) and a National
Preparatory
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Committee (chaired by the Director-General of
Foreign Affairs) to provide policy guidelines for
the World Conference. The National Preparatory
Committee is interdepartmental and also includes
the Human Rights-, Gender-, and Youth
Commissions, civil structures, and
representatives from religious organizations,
academia and the media. Civil society and NGOs
will play an important role both during the
preparatory phase and during the
conference.SOUTH AFRICAS FIRST NATIONAL
CONFERENCE ON RACISM (30 AUGUST - 2 SEPTEMBER
2000)The Conference was held following a call
by the State President, Mr T M Mbeki in his state
of the nation address (4 February 2000) to
convene a conference under the aegis of the South
African Human Rights Commission.
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South Africas National Conference was held to
promote understanding of the nature, meaning and
manifestations of racism in South African
society, devise a common programme for the
elimination of all forms of racism and make
preparations for the United Nations 3rd World
Conference Against Racism (WCAR) to be held in
South Africa in August/September 2001.The
Conference recommended that the South African
Human Rights Commission should develop and adopt
a comprehensive national action plan and strategy
to combat racism. Such a plan should include,
amongst other points, indicators of success,
timeframes and responsibilities, and effective
monitoring and evaluation systems.The
Conference concluded with the South African
Millennium Statement on Racism and Program of
Action, which is to feed into the national
preparatory process for the WCAR.
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OTHER PREPAROTORY PROCESSES BY THE UN FOR THE
WCAR(a) EXPERT AND REGIONAL PREPARATORY
MEETINGS To underpin national efforts to
highlight the importance of combating racism,
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance, the United Nations has sponsored
expert and regional meetings. To date the
following expert and regional preparatory
meetings were held Europe, Americas, Africa
and Asia. All regions are united in their quest
to eliminate racism. At the conclusion of each
preparatory meeting a Declaration and Plan of
Action was adopted. However each of the regions
differ in the emphasis they place on key elements
to adopt in the fight against racism. What
determines this distinction is primarily driven
by regional history and political
considerations.
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The UN secretariat has, subsequently produced a
draft Declaration and Program of Action for the
consideration of UN member states and to
facilitate inter-governmental negotiations in
Durban at the WCAR.(b) INTER-SESSIONAL
MEETINGS The UN has convened inter-sessional
meetings in Geneva as part of the preparatory
process. At the inter-sessional meeting early
last year, a number of themes and sub- themes
were proposed for the consideration of
delegations for the conference against racism in
Durban. These are, inter alia, - Sources,
courses, forms and contemporary manifestations
of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia
and related intolerance - Victims of racism
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- Measures of prevention, protection and
education aimed at the eradication of
racism- Provision of effective remedies,
recourse, redress (compensatory) and other
measures at the national, regional and
international levels- Strategies to achieve
full and effective equality, including
international cooperation and enhancement of the
United Nations and other mechanisms in combating
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerance and follow-up actionsThe
final decision of these themes is subject to
inter-governmental processes of negotiations.
The key proposed themes for the conference are
politically sensitive for a number of
delegations. One such contentious area relates
to the proposal to include compensatory amongst
the themes for the conference, hence
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the wording in the text is still bracketed.The
UN members will continue to discuss these themes
in preparation for the Durban conference.The UN
Secretariat recently produced a draft Declaration
and Plan of Action following regional preparatory
conferences. It is based on the outcome
documents of all regional preparatory
conferences.However a number of delegations
are not entirely satisfied with the outcome
document from the UN. At the inter-sessional
meeting, a number of delegations and regions
indicated that key elements of their input for
the conference document were omitted from the
draft Declaration and Program of Action. They
were therefore not satisfied with the outcome
document.
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At the recent Inter-Sessional meeting in Geneva,
UN members considered various elements which, in
their view, should be Included in the document.
This process is still continuing. A further
Inter-Sessional Open Ended Working Group meeting
is scheduled to take place in Geneva from 7-11
May 2001, followed by the final Preparatory
Committee (Prep Com) to be held in Geneva from 21
May - 1 June 2001. Difficult
IssuesParticularly difficult issues for the
conference are- Palestine/Middle East- slavery
and colonialism- compensation and
reparations- migration, refugees, internally
displaced persons and xenophobia- the issue of
gender discrimination, a trafficking in human
beings, particularly women and
children- indigenous people
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- religious intolerance - Islamaphobia and
Zionism South Africas RoleIn approaching the
conference, a particular challenge for South
Africa as the host country is to ensure that the
conference is successful and that it is attended
at the highest level possible by all delegations.
South African would therefore need to work
behind the scenes to ensure that this becomes a
reality and also facilitates consensus in order
that the outcome can be adhered to by all member
states in implementing conference decisions.To
this end, South Africa would also need to
marshall all diplomatic and persuasive skills at
bilateral and multilateral level to ensure that
all delegations are onboard. This will also mean
conducting informal bilateral meetings with key
delegations to ensure that there is agreement on
these very contentious issues.