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REPORT ON THE REGIONAL PREPARATORY
CONFERENCES OF THE AMERICAS
I. INTRODUCTION
In preparation for the upcoming UN World Conference
against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related
Intolerance, a regional meeting was held for the Americas in Santiago,
Chile, from December 3 to December 7, 2000. There were two parallel
meetings: the governmental conference, called the Americas Preparatory
Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related
Forms of Intolerance (hereinafter Regional PrepCom) and the parallel
"NGO Forum," called the Conference of Citizens against Racism,
Xenophobia, Intolerance and Discrimination (hereinafter Citizen’s
Conference).
The Regional PrepCom was convened by the Chilean
Government and was held December 5-7. In that meeting, governments were
the decision-makers and NGO representatives participated primarily as
lobbyists, observers and providers of information. The Regional PrepCom
adopted two final documents: a Final Declaration and a Plan of Action.
The Citizen’s Conference took place prior to the governmental meeting
from December 3-4, and NGOs, civil society and community-based
organizations were the primary actors in that forum. The Citizen’s
Conference adopted a Final Declaration. Both the Regional PrepCom and
the Citizen’s Conference were convened in order to develop a regional
agenda and a regional program of work to be fed into the World
Conference as well as pursued independently.
There were several positive outcomes of both meetings. On the civil
society side, the massive presence of civil society organizations should
be highlighted. More than 1,700 people participated, giving birth to a
strong regional movement to fight racism. The meetings also contributed
to enhancing the dialogue among Afro-descendants throughout the region
and bringing international attention to the challenges that they face.
On the governmental side, the Regional PrepCom allowed decisive actions
to be taken to fight racial discrimination in the region. For the first
time, governments in the Americas accepted as a region that racial
discrimination exists throughout the region and that it should be
strongly combated. Another important outcome of the Regional PrepCom was
the recognition of indigenous peoples as "peoples" and not as
mere "populations," as they had been called in all of the
prior regional meetings. Finally, there was an important development
regarding the controversial issue of reparations, as a majority of
governments admitted the need for such measures.
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