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United States Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Statement
Durban Review Conference, April 20-24, 2009
Adopted by United States Civil Society in support of the Durban
Review Conference
Preamble
1.
Members of United States civil society adhering to this
Statement express our full and unequivocal support for the Durban
Declaration and Program of Action adopted at the World Conference
Against Racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001;
2.
We affirm that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerances are serious human rights violations and are the
root cause of persistent inequalities that plague our society today;
3.
We acknowledge that the prohibition of racial discrimination,
genocide, the crime of apartheid and slavery is non-derogable, and
can never be suspended even in a war or any state of emergency;
4.
We are concerned that little progress has been made on the
implementation of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action to
effectively combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerances, which continue to afflict our society and
manifest in the unequal enjoyment of basic human rights;
5.
We recognize that urgent action is required on the part of
the United States government and other governments of the
international community to combat racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerances to ensure the full enjoyment of
social, economic, civil, political, and cultural human rights;
6.
We recognize that a failure to combat and denounce racism,
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerances
perpetuates it;
7.
We regret that the United States government did not sign onto
the Durban Declaration and Program of Action and has only
participated in one meeting of the preparatory process for the
Durban Review Conference;
8.
We are convinced that any state that is committed to combat
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of
intolerances should come to the table to discuss the issue, and note
that the failure to do so further encourages persistent
discrimination;
9.
We strongly urge all governments of the international
community, including the United States, to affirm their full
commitment to the Durban Declaration and Program of Action adopted
at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, in
2001, and call on the United States to implement the Durban
Declaration and Program of Action in light of obligations set forth
in the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of
Racial Discrimination;
10.
We call on the United States and all member states of the
United Nations to participate in the Durban Review Conference being
held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 20 to 24 April 2009 in good faith
and to take into account the following views of the NGOs and other
members of civil society adopting this Statement;
Slavery, the Slave Trade and Contemporary Manifestations of Slavery
11.
We reaffirm that slavery and the slave trade, including the
transatlantic slave trade are crimes against humanity, and are major
sources and manifestations of racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerances, and call for the reinsertion of
this reaffirmation in the outcome document of the Durban Review
Conference;
12.
We acknowledge that, to this day, no reparations or apologies
have been made to the victims of slavery, and in particular the
transatlantic slave trade, and urge States that have not yet
condemned, apologized and paid reparations for slavery, the slave
trade, the transatlantic slave trade, apartheid, colonialism and
genocide to do so, and call for the reinsertion of this language in
the outcome document of the Durban Review Conference;
13.
We recognize that the prison industrial complex functions as
a contemporary form of slavery that should be dismantled,
particularly because it assumes the disproportionate targeting,
sentencing, and imprisonment of people of African descent,
linguistic minorities, indigenous people, immigrants, and
transgender and gender non-conforming individuals; subjects members
of these groups to heightened abuse while in prison; profits from
both their imprisonment and their forced unpaid labor; and
disenfranchises them while in prison and upon their release;
14.
We recognize that slavery and the slave trade are
contributing factors to the poor and unequal economic and social
conditions of large numbers of people around the world and call upon
the member states of the United Nations to consider this in plans to
alleviate global poverty and the current economic crisis;
15.
We acknowledge that if real progress is to be made in the
elimination of the present day consequences of the transatlantic
slave trade and racism, it is essential that all governments of the
international community accurately recognize these consequences and
their responsibility to implement commitments established in the
Durban Declaration and Program of Action without delay and with
proper accountability;
People of African Descent
16.
We recognize that the status of people of African descent has, at
best, remained remarkably unchanged since 2001 and that Anti-black
racism continues to result in significant economic, social, legal,
health and cultural disparities;17.
We urge states to eliminate racial profiling, and disparities in the
arrest, prosecution, sentencing, imprisonment and post-conviction
restrictions suffered by people of African descent in the criminal
justice system;
18.
We are alarmed by the policing of people of African descent
that has resulted in numerous killings by law enforcement agents and
urge all states to implement plans to prevent these discriminatory
forms of policing, and to properly investigate and respond with
appropriate strength to perpetrators of police violence;
19.
We urge states to establish and implement comprehensive plans to
reduce the mental and physical health disparities suffered by people
of African descent including the elimination of inequalities in
social determinants of health such as wealth, income, education,
employment, health care, environment, and all forms of racism;
20.
We urge states to make significant progress in gathering data and
other human development indicators, disaggregated by racial and
ethnic subgroups including descents of enslaved Black people or
Afro-descendants, to properly identify both direct and indirect
forms of discrimination, and to assess and monitor progress towards
its elimination;
21.
We urge the United States to include Afro-descendant as a category
in the 2010 Census to account for descendants of enslaved Africans;
22.
We urge that the Working Group of Experts on People of African
Descent be made a permanent forum and be expanded to include at
least 3 at-large members who are persons of African descent, and to
assure that there is representation from the Caribbean and North
America and representation of both male and female persons of
African Descent;
23.
We request that the Working Group of Experts on People of African
Descent assist civil society in developing and strengthening the
connection between the global African community of activists and
people of African descent;
24.
We urge states to provide adequate funding and resources to allow
for full participation of people of African Descent in national,
regional and international meetings on racism;
Indigenous Peoples
25.
We recognize that indigenous peoples have suffered centuries
of discrimination on numerous grounds, including racial and similar
forms of discrimination;
26.
We reiterate that indigenous peoples’ territories have been
dispossessed in the United States as well as other parts of the
world and their social, religious and political structures
destroyed, and that this dispossession and destruction results in
multiple forms of discrimination and violence;
27.
We acknowledge that indigenous peoples have the inalienable
right to self determination and hence also the right to their own
political, social, religious and cultural structure;
28.
We acknowledge that indigenous peoples have both individual
and collective rights to care for their territorial environment and
natural resources, and the right to be able to transfer their
territories as well as their cultural practices to future
generations;
29.
We call upon all states to pay reparation and redress for the
damage and harm caused to the indigenous peoples in a just and
equitable manner;
30.
We call on states to respect the right to participation of
indigenous peoples in all matters that affect them;
31.
We urge all states to abolish discriminatory laws and
policies which exacerbate the difficult plight of indigenous
peoples;
32.
We urge all states, including the United States, to adopt the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples;
33.
We further urge the United States to heed the recommendations
of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination (CERD) set forth in their Concluding Observations in
2008;
People of Asian Descent
34.
We reaffirm that in many parts of the world, Asians and
people of Asian descent face barriers in areas including employment,
housing, education, and the provision of health care, as a result of
social biases and discrimination prevailing in public and private
institutions and express our commitment to work towards the
eradication of all forms of racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance faced by Asians and people of
Asian descent;
35.
We call upon all states to review and, where necessary,
revise any immigration policies which are inconsistent with
international human rights instruments, with a view to eliminating
all discriminatory policies and practices against migrant workers
and their descendants, and refugees, including Asians and people of
Asian descent;
36.
We urge states to consider the further disaggregation by Asian
subgroups in the collection of data for the purpose of identifying
and combating discrimination experienced by people of Asian descent;
Linguistic and Cultural Minorities
37.
We affirm that linguistic minorities experience multiple
forms of discrimination and must be protected to enjoy their human
rights and fundamental freedoms without discrimination of any kind;
38.
We recognize that in the United States, linguistic and
cultural minorities experience many forms of discrimination similar
to those experienced by people of African descent, in particular in
their treatment by the criminal justice system and
over-representation in poverty;
39.
We call on states to develop improved mechanisms to collect
disaggregated data on linguistic and cultural minorities including
Hispanics, Asians, and Africans;
Women
40.
We acknowledge that women suffer multiple forms of discrimination
based on their gender and race, and that gender discrimination still
persists in many parts of the world and thus urge states to promote
equal rights for women regarding education, health and work
opportunities.
41.
We recognize that women are particularly vulnerable during
situations of armed conflict, often subject to abuse and rape, and
support the efforts of the international community, and both
international and domestic legal systems, to recognize rape as a war
crime;
42.
We urge
all states, to adopt and implement strict policies to prohibit
discrimination based on gender, and the intersection of multiple
identities;
43.
We call
on all states to address human rights violations of migrant women,
both documented and undocumented; and urge states to monitor its
prevention and to prosecute such violations;
44.
We call
on all states to set up mechanisms to better protect women with
disabilities and women living with HIV;
45.
We call
on all states to provide comprehensive health care, especially
maternal and reproductive health care services, and acknowledge that
poor reproductive healthcare, inadequate provision of reproductive
options, and the overuse of often non-consensual sterilization
procedures has been used within the United States to destroy the
reproductive capacities of people of African descent, linguistic
minorities, indigenous peoples, immigrants, people with
disabilities, and transgender and gender non-conforming people.
Migrants
46.
We are concerned by acts of xenophobia against migrants,
migrant workers and members of their families and the failure of
many states to adopt policies and practices that prohibit these
acts;
47.
We recognize that migrants, migrant workers and members of
their families suffer multiple forms of discrimination and are
alarmed by the increased violence directed at migrants or perceived
migrants;
48.
We are alarmed by state actions that directly or indirectly
encourage violence against migrants, migrant workers and members of
their families and call on all states to review their policies and
practices with a view of eliminating discrimination and ensuing
violence experienced by migrants;
Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ)
People
49.
We recognize that LGBTQ people are even more vulnerable to multiple
forms of discrimination and urge all states to review and change
their policies that result in denying people their equal and full
enjoyment of all human rights based on these multiple forms of
identity;
50.
We understand that sexual orientation and gender identity often
cause marginalization and discrimination in many societies, and that
such discrimination constitutes a violation of human rights which
should be condemned and responded to with appropriate strength ;
Religious Intolerance
51.
We recognize that discrimination against Muslims or perceived
Muslims including Sikhs as a serious problem of discrimination based
on religion in the international community today, and that this
discrimination is in form similar to that of racial discrimination
and should be considered by states meeting at the Durban Review
Conference;
52.
We recognize that in an effort to battle terrorism, religious
minorities have found themselves subject to discrimination including
racial profiling, and that this form of discrimination is a human
rights violation;
53.
We
urge all
states to implement non-discriminatory actions to combat terrorism
and to adopt progressive programs in the educational curricula to
combat stereotyping and the spreading of phobias against religious
minorities;
Children and Young People
54.
We acknowledge that children and young people are victims of
discrimination, in health, education, the media, and criminal
justice systems, and that because of the vulnerability of age they
often suffer disproportionate physical and psychological damage as a
consequence of discrimination against them;
55.
We recognize that the application of the death penalty and
life imprisonment without parole to children, as well as the
treatment of children as adults by the criminal justice system has a
discriminatory effect on children of racial minorities and call on
all states to immediately prohibit these practices;
56.
We recognize the over-representation of children of African
descent and Indigenous children in the child welfare system, and in
recruitment for the military, and call on all states to use all
appropriate means to investigate and remedy this problem;
57.
We call on all states to regulate judicial and criminal
justice systems to ensure that children and young people are treated
with dignity and fairness, and with special protections based on
their age;
Other Victims
58.
We recognize that the occupation of land belonging to, and treatment
of Palestinians are serious human rights violations, and call on all
States to take appropriate steps to address it urgently;
59.
We recognize that the genocide in Darfur is an urgent human rights
crime, and call on all States to take appropriate steps to address
it urgently;
Poverty
60.
We recognize that throughout history there has been an economic
basis for the perpetuation of racism, and reiterate
that economic inequalities of today are a consequence of the long
periods of colonialism, slave trade, exploitation of resources and
of practices of slavery, racism, and structural and institutional
arrangements that continue to marginalize impoverished communities
of racial and ethnic minorities, and distribute opportunities
unequally;
61.
We urge all member states of the United Nations to ratify and
enforce the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and its Optional Protocol, and to put forth resources to
ensure the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, as
the fulfilment of social, economic and cultural rights is directly
connected to breaking the cycle of poverty;
62.
We recognize the strong link between the right to life,
poverty, the environment, and climate change and call on the member
states of the United Nations to ensure that sustainability is taken
into account in dealing with issues of development, including
combating poverty in this global economic crisis;
Education
63.
We
note the persistence of unequal access to quality education and of
unequal opportunities of attendance and conclusion of schooling at
all levels, due to intra and extra school factors related to racism,
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerances and that
play a significant role in sustaining and transferring poverty from
one generation to another, especially now in the new national
economic crisis.
64.
We
call on states to prioritize the right to education and to guarantee
the equal enjoyment of the right to education irrespective of race,
ethnicity, gender, economic status, or culture;
65.
We
urge all states to include human rights, conflict resolution and
peace education at all levels of formal education, including
graduate and post-graduate education;
66.
We
urge states
in collaboration with civil society to be engaged in human rights
education and in the learning at the community level about human
rights as a way of life and as relevant to people's daily lives of
life as per the United Nation General Assembly resolution: The
International Year of Human Rights Learning;
67.
We call upon states to include in their
educational curricula the accurate teaching and community learning
of history of racism, colonialism, and related oppressions;
68.
We
call upon states to adopt multicultural educational curricula that
teach about the diversity of the human experience and the
indivisibility, interconnectedness and interrelatedness of human
rights;
Environmental Racism
69.
We note that environmental racism is real and exists in
housing, employment, education, and healthcare;
70.
We call on states, particularly the United States, to
investigate all practices leading to dumping toxic wastes in or near
communities with large populations of people of African descent and
other racial minorities, and people with low incomes, and to employ
members of these racial minorities in immediate government-funded
programs to safely destroy, transport, or dispose of such toxic
waste, enforcing fines on all polluters;
71.
We call on states to immediately include racial and ethnic
minorities and people with low incomes in all environmental
decision-making boards and regulatory bodies;
Health
72.
We recognize the psychological impact that centuries of racial
oppression, as well as contemporary forms of racism, has on both the
victims and the perpetrators of oppression, and call on all states
to fulfil the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest
attainable standard of physical and mental health;
73.
We urge all states to take all appropriate measures to eliminate
disparities in health status;
State Measures to Combat Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia
and Related Intolerance
74.
We call on all states to adopt and fully implement without
reservation all United Nations mechanisms established to combat
discriminatory practices;
75.
We call on all states to acknowledge that racism is a global
problem, which needs joint efforts and strategies adopted by all
states, as well as non-state players;
76.
We call on the Human Rights Council and all member states of
the United Nations to fully support the effective implementation of
the Durban Declaration and Program of Action;
77.
We call on all states to report regularly and on time to the
United Nation committees administering the International Convention
on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination,
the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment,
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the
Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, and the International
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
including reporting and implementation at the local level;
78.
We call on all states to support the work of Human Rights
Council mechanisms in an increased effort to combat the different
areas of racism and discrimination including the work of the Special
Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance, and in particular call on the
United States to implement the recommendations of the fact-finding
report of Mr. Doudou Diene, former Special Rapporteur on racism,
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance;
79.
We call on all states to develop programs, including
affirmative and positive action initiatives intended for victims or
members of groups that have suffered racial discrimination, for
allocating the necessary resources to enable the equal enjoyment of
the rights to health, education, housing, water, safe environment,
work, etc.;
80.
We call on states to reaffirm the commitments of the outcome
document of the Durban Review Conference and the Durban Declaration
and Program of Action, and to integrate them into all other
international agreements;
81.
We
call on all states
to ensure that proper resources are allocated and dispensed to the
mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, and the Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Human Rights
Committee (CCPR), the Committee Against Torture (CAT), the Committee
on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the Committee on
Migrant Workers (CMW), and the Committee on the Right of Persons
with Disabilities (CRPD) to ensure their effective implementation;
82.
We acknowledge the work done by the High Commissioner for
Human Rights and encourage the full support of her work against
racism and other similar forms of discrimination;
Support for the work of Civil Society in Combating Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance
83.
We express our solidarity and support for all like-minded
NGOs presenting their concerns to states in furthering the goals of
the Durban Declaration and Program of Action and call on all states
negotiating the Final Statement of the Durban Review Conference to
take the opinions of civil society into account in their
negotiations and to ensure that the Final Statement of the Durban
Review Conference that they adopt builds on the Durban Declaration
and Program of Action adopted in 2001.
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