AHRC UA Index: 000809 9 August 2000
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UA 30/00: Sign Petition to ensure fundamental issues not ignored
WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM (WCAR): May ignore important aspects of discrimination in Asia
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On-line Petition:
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/wcar_appeal_eng.htm
The UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) is to be held in South Africa in 2001. It is vital that this conference addresses the entrenched discriminatory practices in Asia such as the oppression of low caste people in India.
After thousands of years, discrimination against Dalits (formerly called Untouchables) is still rampant in India and other South Asian countries. People are prevented from voting, punished for interacting with those of higher castes and not allowed to drink from the same well as others, simply because of the family they were born into. Many are beaten or killed because they do not follow the caste rules. Now that apartheid has ended and slavery has virtually been deleted from humanity, it is time to address the caste issue, which is at least as abominable as these other two hideous systems.
There are many other issues related to this Conference – such as the plight of Aborigines in Australia, the racial and religious violence in Indonesia and the treatment of minority groups in other parts of Asia – that could easily be left out of the WCAR since the preparatory process is only allowing a few issues to be included. Those responsible for these ugly forms of discrimination will be given the power to prevent the issues from being discussed, unless the UN widens the agenda during the preparatory process.
You can register your belief that this World Conference Against Racism MUST address caste discrimination and other forms of intolerance that may be left out by taking a few seconds to sign the on-line appeal to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Please put the following address in your internet browser:
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/wcar_appeal_eng.htm
The appeal is available in English, Spanish and French, so please inform anyone else who you think would like to see the caste system abolished about this petition.
IF YOU CANNOT ACCESS THE INTERNET EASILY, the petition is pasted below this message – to sign you can read it and send a reply to this email, ie. to <ua@ahrchk.org>, with the words….
\”Sign WCAR Petition\”
….in the subject line.
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PETITION:
An Appeal to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
RE: World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance
South Africa, 2001
Fundamental Issues Relating to Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in the Asian Region Need to Be Included in All Preparatory and Experts’ Meetings Leading to the World Conference against Racism.
As the preparation for this conference is under way, it is necessary to stress a need for an open process in which all groups and persons suffering from various forms of discrimination will be able to bring their situations to the notice of the conference and to the international community.
Asia is the largest continent in the world with a population amounting to more than 2.5 billion. In this context, it is only natural that there are very acute forms of discrimination that exist in this vast continent. All preparatory meetings leading to this conference, particularly those held in Asia, must provide sufficient opportunity for Asian communities to bring their grievances to the notice of the conference. The two meetings to be in held in Asia are the Experts’ Seminar, 5 -7 September, 2000, in Bangkok, Thailand, and the Asia Regional Preparatory Committee Meeting in January 2001 in Tehran, Iran.
In these circumstances it is rather disturbing to see that the themes fixed for the Experts’ Seminar to be held in Bangkok is \”Migrant Workers and Trafficking of Persons, with Particular Reference to Women and Children.\” This way of fixing the theme will exclude discussion on all other fundamental issues. While the topic that has been set is of great importance and deserves the support of everyone, it in no way exhausts the forms of discrimination in Asia. In fact, the theme fixed in this way will exclude the discussion of many vital issues. For this reason, the beneficiaries of fixing the theme in this way are the perpetrators who cause such discrimination and political systems that protect such perpetrators. To shut the door to those groups of persons defeats the purposes of the world conference and the preparatory work done for that purpose.
As the fixing of the themes for such meetings are done by the organizing group of the conference based in the United Nations High Commissioner’s Office, it is necessary that they take necessary steps to avoid the exclusion of any form of discrimination practiced in the region from being discussed. This particularly applies to entrenched forms of discrimination affecting millions of people.
In terms of the forthcoming Experts’ Seminar in Asia, this means that either the theme of the meeting should be changed or, if that is not possible for any reason, to make allowance for discussion of all issues relevant to the world conference, despite the narrow limits set by the theme of the seminar.
Therefore, we urge the United Nations High Commissioner to take all steps to avoid exclusion of vital issues of discrimination in Asia from the forthcoming Experts’ Seminar in Asia. We eagerly await a positive reaction on this matter from the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights.
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To sign please send a reply to this email, ie. to <ua@ahrchk.org>, with the words….
\”Sign WCAR Petition\”
….in the subject line.
