[DEBATE] : United Against Racism! Civil Society Forum in Geneva 17th to 19th April

[Riaz K Tayob]

*United Against Racism! Civil Society Forum in Geneva 17th to 19th April*

* /(Revised report written by Irene Eckert, Berlin on April 28^th 2009)^ /*

/
/In spite of manifold efforts to block it*, *to defame it, to 
characterize it at as a "masquerade" and whatever else, the NGO Forum 
for the Durban Review Conference opened on Friday evening with an 
inspiring film on women’ s creativity in post-apartheid South Africa. 
This media presentation gave a beautiful introduction to the spirit of 
the NGO Forum held in Durban in 2001, which was quite different from the 
ambiance reigning in Geneva in 2009, gathering then nearly 20 000 with 
compared to the 400 participants who assembled in Genva this time. **

However, the Vice Mayor of Geneva, Mr. Remy Pagani, opened the evening 
ceremony with a warm welcome and referred to the commitment by the city 
of Geneva, as a multicultural city, and promised to contribute to the 
struggle against racism.

Other speakers warned against very dangerous tendencies, as did 
Professor Doudou Diene from Senegal, former UN Special Rapporteur on 
Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and 
Related Intolerance, who reflected upon the challenges we are facing 
today. He voiced alarm that today academics can debate anew that Black 
people be "intellectually inferior" to those of the White "race", a 
concept long discarded. However, it was said to have been revived 
recently by none less than a Nobel laureate in medicine. It is a 
terrible step backward, as Professor Doudou Diene pointed out. He added 
that all forms of racism are on the rise globally and he deplored the 
lack of political will to confront it. Another serious threat, he 
mentioned, was the current rise of Islamophobia. He called for 
legislation against the incitement of racism and hatred that leads to 
violence. We must mobilize on a national and international level, and we 
must not allow the facts to be manipulated. We must speak out and act 
upon efforts to denature the very essence of the United Nations as 
enshrined in the Charter of 1945. Governments must be reminded to stick 
to their commitments, and Professor Doudou Diene encouraged his audience 
to do so.

Ms Edna Poland from Brazil, a member of the Expert Group on the 
implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA), 
praised the very positive results of Durban I. Unfortunately, they had 
been practically set aside by the tragic events of September 11th, 
immediately following the Conference. “We are now struggling within a 
very limited space”, she said and further barriers are being put up to 
even narrow this space. Those who are promoting racism attack others of 
being racists. It seems paramount to build upon the very constructive 
language that has been applied in the Durban I documents, she went on. 
Ms Poland also points out that the preparatory process for this UN 
Review Conference had been very confrontational and she even 
characterized it as a kind of "guerrilla war" going on between the 
"European Group" (including the US and Israel) and the Muslim World + 
Africa and some parts of Asia. As example, she mentioned the Europeans’ 
efforts to denounce every call for legislation to prohibit incitement of 
racial hatred as an infringement on "freedom of expression". In other 
words, even comparing the Koran to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” in speech or 
print is covered by this understanding of freedom of expression and must 
not be stopped even if it hurts Moslems to the core. Edna Poland was not 
hte only one who advocated in the name of her constituency that there be 
limits to the freedom of expression. She also called for clear 
definitions of the issuesto be covered.

Women with as different a vision as that of Malaak Shabazz, daughter of 
Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz and that of Senator Anne Mary Lizin, 
Honorary President of the Belgian Senate, closed the evening event with 
both expressing their profound wishes that the forthcoming UN Review 

Conference should be successful and should build on the landmark that 
the 2001 Durban Conference had provided. MS Shabazz expressed her strong 
desire that the US government, whose president she had helped to come 
into office, should participate, in vain. As the had already done in 
Durban (South Africa) in 2001 the US abstained.

Saturday morning started with another plenary session. Madame Mireille 
Fanon, Frantz Fanon’s daughter and wife of Mendes France, urged to cut 
through false and distorted notions. There are states that produce 
racist laws under the cover of denouncing racism, she said. This is 
incompatible with the UN Charter and with Humanitarian Law. Professor 
Yash Tandon, a Ugandan citizen of Indian origin, described the long road 
the Durban process had come along. With reference to his freshly 
published book /Reflections and Foresight on Development and 
Globalisation - Daring to think different/, published by the South 
Centre in Geneva 2009, he described all colonial settler regimes as 
racist and in total opposition to the provisions of the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights. Looking deep into history, he said it would 
mean trivialising the meaning of the colonial settler regime in Israel 
if one would only reflected upon it with reference to the influence of a 
"Zionist Lobby" in the USA. It was, he said, to be referred to within 
the anti-colonial revolutionary process that again was to be understood 
within the framework delivered by the French Revolution and its ideas of 
basic human rights. Such a moral framework, if taken seriously, would 
make settler colonialism that has always been directed against 
indigenous populations morally inacceptable. It was understood that the 
issue of the Palestinian People and the issue of reparation for colonial 
exploitation and enslavement of entire populations were for him burning 
and related issues. “One of the casualties of the Gaza bombardments may 
well be the one state solution”, Tandon said. He ended by underlining 
that Palestine waited to be decolonized.

Karl Flecker, representing the Canadian Labour Union Congress, and as 
director of the human rights programme reflected on the social and 
economic issues that are linked to the question of racism. Ms Nimalka 
Fernando from Sri Lanka, president of the International Movement against 
all Forms of Discrimination and Racism, enlarged the theme in pointing 
out how September 11th had resulted in worsening the already very 
exploitative labour conditions in the South. She explained how farmers 
were driven to seek jobs abroad, where migrant workers, often women, 
find extremely poor working conditions and many are confronted with 
sexual violence.

A well-attended workshop on the “Plight of the Palestine People” 
provided participants with first hand information on the present 
situation in GAZA. Mr. Charles Dedon ( former Director of Geneva Civil 
Defense) and Dr. Saad Elnounoun (French expert in Human Health), 
representing an international civil defence organisation presented 
slides of their recent visit to the area to which they were sent in 
order to evaluate the needs for rebuilding of civil-protection and 
sanitary infrastructure as well as of medical structures and equipment 
destroyed in the latest Israeli military assault. They reported on the 
systematic destruction of buildings like firemen shelters and police 
stations, and also of hospitals, schools and laboratories and equipment. 
This was documented by slides showing clearly that these structures were 
specifically targeted. The two men, representing a non-political 
association were obviously profoundly touched by what they saw in Gaza.

A parallel conference organized by the Badil Resource Centre provided 
even more ample evidence of human rights violations in the region and 
put forward a strategy position paper to the Durban II meeting with 
recommendations that, if implemented, could contribute to bring dignity 
and justice for all human beings affected by a now racist policy.

The "Independent Jewish Voices" from Canada were among those 
participating in the NGO Forum who felt strongly about the need to 
express their solidarity with the Palestinian People. They also 
expressed their opposition to “Zionist and pro-Israeli groups coming to 
Geneva on April 20^th , working to derail this crucially important 
conference in the name of observing the holocaust.” These Canadian Jews 
were not the only ones who felt “alarmed by the escalating use of 
intimidation and fear tactics by some prominent Jewish organisations to 
distract attention from Israel’s flagrant violations of international 
humanitarian law.”

Discussions throughout the weekend included the expression of strong 
concerns about increasing acts of xenophopia against migrant workers and 
their families as well as against asylum seekers. The incitement to 
hatred based on religious believes in particular the serious increase in 
Islamophobia was condemmed as was Anti-semitism. The conference weekend 
concluded with a plenary session with Ramsey Clark, former US attorney 
general, as the keynote speaker.

On Saturday afternoon a march organized by local organizations, 
including trade unions and many solidarity organizations denounced 
racism in their city and country and everywhere else.

A group of committed participants worked until the early hours of Monday 
on a meaningful statement to which all participants that had come from 
far would finally agree and could work with back home. This statment 
strongly welcomes the Durban II Review Coference and calls on all 
nations to support the DDPA and go beyond.

On Monday, the 20^th of April, activities began early at the Palais des 
Nations where representatives of organizations accredited to the Durban 
Review Conference stood in long lines to register for the badges to 
enter the UN Assembly Hall. But it was difficult to get into the Hall 
even for accredited NGO-members as only one badge per organization was 
issued. This was meant to be rotated within each organization. Yet, some 
NGOs were massively over-represented as could be witnessed when 
President Ahmadinedjad of Iran, the only head of state attending the 
Conference spoke. One of the large adjacent conference rooms was 
equipped with a TV screen where the Assembly proceedings were meant to 
be followed by those unable to be in the Assembly Hall. But annoyingly 
due to “technical” problems Ahmadinedjads words were not translated nor 
to be heard in Farsi in this conference room filled with NGO 
representatives. The Iranian president’s words could however be received 
over the web cam and his word classifying the occupational regime in 
Palestine to be racist must have expressed the feelings of many nations 
and of those NGO representatives who had heard expert’s analyses over 
the weekend.

Experts described it as unique within the UN premises what was to be 
witnessed when the only head of state adressing the conference. As soon 
as the Iranian president opened his lips he was harrassed, clowns 
started to throw balls around and representatives of Western governments 
left the Assembly Hall under protest together with quite a number of 
admitted NGO representatives. Outside the hall the aggressive shouting 
continued without interference of UN security personnelN ot only was the 
media coverage very biased but also did UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon 
comment negatively on Ahmadinejads words.

However the majority of member countries stayed and tried to listen, 
which was not easy given the tumult. The representative of the Norvegian 
Mission who spoke next, expressed his dissent but confirmed that the 
right of freedom of expression needed to be defended.

The level of polarization reached at the UN in Mid-April 2009 over the 
issue of Racism was – again according to experts – never expressed as 
sharply before. The former West-East conflict line has transmuted into a 
North – South polarity and according to many voices cannot be resolved 

without a just and inclusive solution for all the people living in 
Palestine on the basis of humanitarian law.