by Saeed Shabazz
Staff Writer
NEW YORK (FinalCall.com)�The World Conference Against Racism (WCAR)
ended September 8, 2001 and two months later the United Nations
Secretariat has not released the final Declaration and Program of
Action, activists here charge.
"The Secretariat wants to place three paragraphs agreed upon at
Durban, which are indisputably action oriented, where they would have no
practical follow-up effect," said Roger Wareham of the December 12th
Movement, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that played a key role
in the WCAR.
On Nov. 6, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, in a
printed statement, explained to the Third Committee of the 56th session
of the General Assembly that the three paragraphs are now being debated
by member states.
"The disagreement does not relate to the substance of the paragraphs,
only where they should be placed," the High Commissioner said.
The Third Committee has the responsibility of presenting the General
Assembly with a final document that will be used by the world body to
deal with the issues agreed upon at Durban.
Mr. Wareham refutes any suggestion that member states are confused
about the Plan of Action. A consensus document was drafted in Durban
that clearly provided language that would set the basis for both
national and international follow-up on the issues of the Trans-Atlantic
Slave Trade as a crime against humanity and tying the persistence of
racism in this century to its economic basis, he said.
"The West suffered a defeat in Durban when the consensus document was
drafted that talked about those issues. So the only thing they can do
now is try to reverse the verdict," Mr. Wareham charged.
On Nov. 15, Mun Jong Chol of the Democratic People�s Republic of
Korea told his colleagues in the Third Committee that "there were
several contentious and confrontational issues which clouded
international discussions of humanitarian issues," and that he sees the
problem largely as a lack of impartiality, unilateral coercive measures
and inequitable relations.
"While in the past, infringement on human rights had been disguised
as colonialism or racist practices, now the methods are unilateral
sanctions or inequitable trade policies," Mr. Chol said.
Mr. Chol did not place blame on any particular member state. He did,
however, chastise the United States for what he called "its arrogance
for instructing other countries on their human rights efforts, while
failing to deal with their own humanitarian problems."
Hasmy Agam of Malaysia, chairman of the Fourth Committee, said the
outcome documents from the WCAR demonstrated significant milestones in
the never-ending efforts of the international community to combat
racism.
"The fact that the WCAR defined slavery and the slave trade as crimes
against humanity and, in the same vein, also recognized that victims of
historical injustices continued to suffer the consequences of racism was
a significant breakthrough," Mr. Agam said. He reminded his colleagues
that the forward-looking actions adopted at Durban "must not be lost."
"I urge the High Commissioner to use the moral weight of her office
to facilitate the dialogue on the Plan of Action," he said.
Ms. Robinson countered that until the matter of the placement of the
three paragraphs is settled, the Secretariat was severely limited in its
ability to promote the anti-discrimination agenda. "No doubt some
agreement will be reached," she said.
This was not a world conference against discrimination in the generic
sense, Mr. Wareham responded to The Final Call. "When you begin
talking about discrimination as opposed to racism, you are then
relegating racism and racial discrimination to one of many different
forms of discrimination, which was the western agenda all along," he
said.
Mr. Wareham said the bottom line was that the West wanted to dilute
their culpability. "I am not surprised by the tactics they are using in
the Third Committee," Mr. Wareham said.
