Durban II conference did little to give war against racism a forward push

Participants at the anti-racism conference in Switzerland seemed to lack a clear unity of purpose, with only a few making relevant contributions. HENRY GOMBYA reports from Geneva.

The United Nations Conference Against Racism (WCAR), which ends in Geneva, Switzerland, today, will perhaps best be remembered for the walk-out by Western delegates and demonstrations outside the meeting hall.

The five-day conference, which opened on Monday at the UN headquarters, was organised to evaluate the progress achieved so far towards the goals set by the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Intolerance in the South African city of Durban in 2001.

However, it seems that Africa will gain little from Durban II – as it is also known­ – if the contribution of delegates from the continent is anything to go by. Delegates from Africa largely glossed over the main issues, with only a few making any serious contributions.

Among the notable contributors was Kenya’s Assistant Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs, Mr William Cheptumo, who warned that the current global economic crisis is posing severe challenges to the most vulnerable sectors of society.

Speaking shortly before the conference adopted a 16-page document re-affirming its pledges to combat racism, Mr Cheptumo said it was regrettable that eight years after the first summit on racism in Durban, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance continue to thrive.

Cheptumo was among the few delegates who came out to say that there had been little progress among member states with regard to the elimination of racism since the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action was adopted in 2001. He said the international community needed to work together to undo the damage caused by past injustices. “This conference should send a clear message that the international community is determined to eradicate the vestiges of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance,” he said.

Call for willpower

Mr Cheptumo was supported by the Libyan deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Abdulati Alobidi, who said that lack of political will by the international community had made it difficult to end the scourge of racism.

He, too, pointed out that despite international efforts to combat racism, the objectives of the Durban Conference in South Africa in 2001 are yet to be met, adding that the fight against racism called for willpower on the part of the international community, as well as the implementation of genuine programmes to counter the racist behaviour.

“People of African origin were exploited for centuries by whites, who did not accept their dignity,” Alobidi said. Then, demanding reparations and apologies on behalf of the people of Africa, the assistant minister said such demands would help avoid a repeat of racism. He said Libya was calling on all states that had been colonised to seek compensation and apologies from their former colonisers.

Alobidi, who said it was unacceptable for anyone to liken Islam to terrorism, called for the inclusion of a paragraph calling for reparations in the outcome document, but his appeal fell on deaf years. Instead, the document stated that slavery, the slave trade, apartheid, colonialism and genocide must never be forgotten. 

No mention of recent events

Generally, the delegates agreed that racism has often led to war, but there was no mention of the problems faced, for example, by the people of Darfur in Sudan, where thousands have lost their lives as a result of racial discrimination. Nor was there any mention of the relatively more recent events in Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe, where lives were lost because of xenophobia and intolerance. 

Meanwhile, South African Foreign Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma only made a passing remark about the xenophobic attacks that took place in her country last year. She did not say what her country had done to make sure such incidents never occurred again and whether the relatives of those affected had received any compensation, or even an apology.

Interestingly, Dr Zuma had a lot more to say about Rwanda. Commenting on the 1994 genocide in that country, she said that “Propaganda and incitement by Radio Mille Collines, other media and politicians were to blame for the Rwanda massacres. “We remain concerned at the surge of incidents relating to incitement to racial and religious hatred. In this regard, we should learn from the lessons of the past,” she said.

Progress in US ignored

She also talked of lack of basic services such as water, energy, housing, health care facilities and sanitation.

It is notable that while delegates said little about the suffering in different parts of Africa as a result of discrimination and intolerance and kept congratulating each other on the “tremendous progress” made towards the elimination of racism since Durban I, they made no mention whatsoever of the progress made in the United States, where, for the first time ever, a black man, Barack Obama, was elected president in November last year.