SOUTH AFRICA TO HOST WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM
The United Nations intends holding a major international conference against racism and racial discrimination in South Africa - the country whose policy of apartheid once symbolised the very evils of racism and intolerance. The UN's Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee unanimously adopted a resolution last week requesting the High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson to undertake preparatory activities for a ''World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.'' The resolution is expected to be formally approved by the 188-member General Assembly in mid-December. The conference will take place in mid-2001 and will adopt a document containing specific goals, objectives and timetables to fight racism worldwide. Robinson, who has been named Secretary-General of the Conference, believes that there is no more serious danger that threatens human rights today than the spectre of racism. ''In every part of the world, the virus of intolerance seeks to destroy the healthy tissues of society and causes internal and international conflict, wide spread massacres, and even genocide,'' she says. ''That is why I give such high importance to my responsibilities as Secretary-General of the Conference.'' Robinson says she is moving on a number of levels to ensure that the Conference is well prepared and that it will have ''a wide and lasting impact.'' She has appealed to all member states to make available the necessary resources to make the Conference a success. The UN resolution says that the Conference should be ''action-oriented'' focusing specifically on practical measures to eradicate racism, including through measures of prevention, education and protection. When the resolution comes up for approval, the General Assembly also is expected to ''strongly reaffirm'' the proclamation of 2001as the ''International Year of Mobilisation Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.'' In a related resolution, the General Assembly will declare that racism and racial discrimination are among ''the most serious violations of human rights in the contemporary world and must be combated by all available means.'' The Assembly will express profound concern about, and unequivocal condemnation of, racial violence and propaganda or activities based on doctrines of racial superiority. The resolution expresses deep concern about the increase in racial and xenophobic violence, particularly in Europe and North America, ''where the numbers of associations established on racist or xenophobic platforms was increasing''. The contemporary forms of racism, identified by the United Nations, are mostly against Blacks, Arabs, Muslims and Jews. Additionally, the resolution condemns the misuse of print, media and new technology, including the Internet, for the purpose of inciting violence motivated by racial hatred. In a report to the General Assembly released last month, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Racism says there are more than 1,400 racist sites on the Internet, although some people estimate that the number is as high as 4,000. Addressing delegates last month, Robinson said that the upcoming World Conference will be an ideal opportunity to mobilise the local and national community of each state in the campaign against discrimination and for the respect of the dignity of each individual. ''I would like to suggest that we engage civil society and the non-governmental community in each country, along with national human rights institutions, in examining the question of dignity and equality,'' she noted. Robinson also said that the two key questions to be addressed on the issue of racism are: What has been achieved so far; and what still needs to be done? The World Conference would then be able to benefit from the energy, imagination and commitment of the people of each country in building the international response to the challenges of discrimination. The subject of racial intolerance is expected to cover a broad range of people and issues, including indigenous people, migrant workers, women, children in armed conflict and genocide. ''The horrors of Cambodia, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kosovo and East Timor were brought home to us graphically by print media, radio and television,'' Robinson told delegates here. ''The public response to these terrible examples of human rights abuses, understandably, is to ask why?'' she said. ''Why can't more be done about gross human rights violations? Why have people in the Balkans or East Timor or Central Africa to endure so much to secure rights about which there is a universal consensus? ''Why have there been genocides in Rwanda and Cambodia when the whole of the modern human rights movement is predicated on the determination, born out of the horrors of the Holocaust, that genocide would never happen again? ''And why cannot the international community - and the United Nations in particular - prevent these horrors from happening?''