Part of the United Nations
World Conference Against Racism,
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance
Convenors
Ambassador Nozipho January-Bardill
Member, UN Commitee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Gay J. McDougall
Member, UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
N. Barney Pityana
Chair, South African Human Rights Commission
The World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa from 27th August to the 7th September was an important and unique opportunity for the global community to develop practical and effective strategies to combat contemporary forms and manifestations of racism. In order to achieve its objectives, the World Conference needed to make visible those individuals, groups and communities who have been confronted and harmed by racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. An essential aspect of the World Conference Against Racism had to be to amplify the voices of the victims.
Indeed, one of the major themes on the conference agenda, as decided by governments during the first Preparatory Committee, was the session for "victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance". But, placing the topic on the official agenda, however, could only partially achieve the goal of placing the victims at the center of the World Conference proceedings. Official agenda items were to be discussed in a highly formal and structured forum, in which governments would be the principal actors. Likewise, the NGO Forum, while serving a number of other critical purposes, was never seen as providing an appropriate venue in which to give due recognition to the centrality of the experiences of the victims.
A special forum at the official venue of the World Conference was clearly needed – a unique and prominent platform to make visible the victims of racism and give resonance to their voices in all chambers of the conference. To this end, we convened a Special Forum on "Voices: Personal Experiences of Racism and Racial Discrimination".
The organizers of the Special Forum were Gay McDougall and Ambassador Nozipho January-Bardill, members of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), and N. Barney Pityana, Chair of the South African Human Rights Commission. The Special Forum engaged the participation of UN officials, government representatives, advocates and media from around the world. The Special Forum was also organized in close cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner and the World Conference Secretariats in Geneva and South Africa.
The 'Voices' Special Forum:
The Special Forum assembled a geographically and racially diverse group of 22 presenters who gave compelling testimony on their experiences of discrimination on the basis of race, color, descent, national or ethnic origin. The objective was to convene a forum featuring dynamic individuals who can articulate both the pain and promise in their experiences of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
The presenters were selected through a rigorous process based on deliberate outreach and carefully designed criteria. National institutions on human rights, including the South African Human Rights Commission, were invited to nominate presenters to testify. National institutions on human rights play a key role in ensuring compliance with international standards and norms prohibiting racial discrimination, and were well-placed to identify potential presenters.
Everyday for six days during the conference the Special Forum presented voices from an extraordinary group of people from all parts of the world, who shared with the world their personal stories of racial discrimination—compelling, insightful and inspiring stories. They described the corrosive effects of racial discrimination on the whole of humanity.
Most of the presenters, like many others who have been targets of racism and discrimination, do not consider themselves "victims"—they are survivors, defenders, activists. Their stories recognized and celebrated the human spirit that allowed each of them to overcome oppression and continue to work for a non-racist society. They were stories of triumph as well as tragedy.
The Voices presented in the Special Forum were from each region of he world. They came not as representatives, but to speak on their own behalf. Their stories revealed the many manifestations of racism; its causes and effects. And, seen together, their stories painted the larger picture of racial discrimination in the 21st century.
We heard about familiar manifestations of racism, like hate crimes and slavery. But, there were also stories about more insidious forms of racial discrimination that are otherwise innocuously embedded in the institutions that control all of our lives—stories that revealed the effects of systemic forms of racial discrimination.
We heard tales of discrimination against the Roma, and the heart-stopping story of a Hutu man who married a Tutsi woman and survived Rwanda's horrifying genocide.
We heard a father tell of his son, shot 41 times by police, a powerful story of globalization's devastating effects on indigenous peoples and the unforgettable story of a 15 year old girl who escaped slavery.
We heard the voice of a Yorta Yorta woman lay claim to the rich history of her people against colonizing powers, a brave young man facing xenophobic trends in the United Kingdom, an indigenous doctor trying to preserve the intellectual property rights of plant life used by his people throughout their existence, and the wrenching story of post-Apartheid racial discrimination in South Africa.
We heard about the ancient hatred of anti-Semitism, the horrors of ethnic cleansing, and the fight that continues against a plantation mentality in the United States.
We heard voices of oppression of the Uyghurs in China, the need to eliminate caste discrimination in India, the struggle of the Mapuche people in Chile and a story that too often is missed in the Middle East about the lack of recognition for Arab villages in Israel.
We heard stories of dispossessed people in war-torn Colombia, oppression of Kurds in Turkey, and the simple requests of a very courageous old man whose life was stolen by Apartheid.
We could never have hoped to include every compelling story in the six days of the forum. We hoped, however that the variety of stories told would make the point that racism exists in every society, in every country, in every region of the world. The ways in which racism and related forms of intolerance manifest themselves vary across cultures and over time—as must the strategies to combat racism.
In addition to the presenters, the Special Forum assembled a panel of experts, comprised of individuals of prestige and distinction in the field of human rights and racial justice. The Panel included members of UN human rights treaty bodies, UN Special Rapporteurs and internationally respected humanitarians. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights joined the Panel of Experts and gave a closing speech. (See list attached of Panel of Experts).
Media and Documentation:
Media attention and documentation were critical pieces of this project. The South African Broadcasting Corporation televised the proceedings live each day of the Forum, throughout South Africa and over their continent-wide service.
The Special Forum proceedings will be made into a CD-rom to be distributed to schools around the world after the conference. We will also package footage of the Special Forum and other activities at the World Conference, including the NGO Forum, into a documentary film for later distribution.
The Role of Trauma Counselors
The vast majority of the 'victim' presenters that we brought to Durban to testify, had no experience with public speaking. More importantly, they had never spoken about the events they had come to Durban to describe to the world. Perhaps many of them had devised ways to distance themselves from the deeply emotional content of those events. When they arrived in Durban, organising staff had the task of working closely with each of them to draft their testimonies and prepare for delivering them at the Forum. Over a period of two weeks leading up to and including each of their presentations at the Forum, we found ourselves engaged in a journey with each of them that took us back with them into their past, to remember many things that had been emotionally buried. For some of them, the pain was overwhelming, and it touched not only the presenters but also each of us who worked on this project. We were not expecting that.
Because of that, this was a project that may not have been fully realized without the professional involvement of trauma counselors. Because of its own commitment to making a contribution to the World Conference Against Racism, the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) provided three counselors from their Trauma Clinic and there was also one from the South African Human Rights Commission. They played an essential role throughout the process, from the interviews with the presenters, working with them on their testimonies, preparing them on the day of their presentations and sitting with them on stage as a form of support. They were even essential in our daily staff meetings. Their contributions to this process cannot be overstated and we all left Durban with a tremendous appreciation for them as individuals and professionals.
The CSVR trauma counselors who worked on the 'Voices' session were: Sherbanu Sacoor, Ntsiki Masilo, and S'mangele Mayisela.
A project of the International Human Rights Law Group.
CSVR is a multi-disciplinary institute that seeks to understand and prevent violence, heal its effects and build sustainable peace at the community, national and regional levels.
