Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

REPORT BY DOUGLAS STEWART REPRESENTATIVE OF THE HAGUE INTERNATIONAL MODEL UNITED NATIONS TO THE UNITED NATIONS WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, XENOPHOBIA AND RELATED INTOLERANCE

Durban, South Africa
August/September 2001

The Background of the World Conference

The World Conference (WCAR) of 2001 was the third of its kind to be held by the United Nations, the first taking place in 1978 and the second in 1983. Given the continuing impact of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in all communities of today, a third conference was convened.

The conference was voluntarily hosted by the Government of South Africa, and convened by the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights. Mary Robinson acted as Secretary-General of the Conference.

The aims of WCAR were to focus on practical efforts to eradicate racism, and address forms of racism particularly relevant to contemporary society. To fulfil these aims as broadly and holistically as possible, extensive preliminary steps were taken to prepare for the conference. This included a number of preparatory sessions in Geneva, as well as Regional Conferences in Strasbourg, Santiago, Dakar and Tehran, to prepare the agenda and rules of procedure for the conference. Of interest is that Australia was not invited to participate in a regional conference.

The formal outcome of WCAR is two documents, a Declaration and Program of Action. These were drafted at the conference, by the member nations of the UN. Each nation sent a Delegation to the Conference, numbering up to 200 people per delegation. As well as Governmental Delegations, non-governmental and intergovernmental organisations were invited to participate in the conference. While these organisations could have no substantive role in the drafting of the WCAR Declaration and Program of Action, they could listen to and monitor the conference proceedings, lobby governmental delegations on certain issues, network with each other, and participate in the extensive Parallel Events of the Conference, which included forums, seminars, workshops and meetings. As an aid to centralised NGO activity in the conference, a NGO Forum was also convened. This conference, separate to WCAR, was held before and during WCAR in Durban.

In total, over 18,000 delegates, including representatives of more than 1200 non-governmental organisations, took part in WCAR, making the event one of the largest international conferences in history.

The THIMUN Delegation

Of the many NGO's granted accreditation to participate in WCAR, a number were youth-orientated, including THIMUN. THIMUN (The Hague International Model United Nations) is the peak international youth model UN, and the world's largest youth conference with approximately 4000 participants. From my participation in THIMUN 2001, I was selected to represent the organisation at WCAR. The delegation was diverse in its composition, but all members were aged 16 - 22.

The purpose of the Delegation was twofold. Firstly, to represent global youth policy on the issues of the conference. Such policy was formulated at the THIMUN session in The Hague earlier that year, through various international youth committees. Secondly, the purpose of the delegation to WCAR was to provide the opportunity for interested young people to learn more about the UN and how it works.

Preparations for the Conference

In order to help me prepare for the conference, David Kinley of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law assisted me in contacting organisations in Australia who had their own involvement in WCAR. These included non-governmental organisations in Australia, philanthropic organisations and Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. From understanding how these groups operated, and would participate in WCAR, I gained a clearer picture of the way our own Delegation could participate in the Conference.

The THIMUN delegation, being international, engaged in all preparations over the internet. Via e-mail we coordinated policy discussions, travel arrangements and conference news, only meeting for the first time when we all arrived in Durban.

THIMUN was not able to financially assist delegates, who had to secure funding through their own means. After applying for sponsorship from a number of organisations to attend WCAR, I was able to secure substantial travel scholarships from Monash University Faculty of Law, the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, and the Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies. The assistance provided to me by these centres was essential to my attendance at the conference, and included not just financial assistance but advice and information which made my preparations significantly smoother.

The controversies of WCAR

Over about 10 days (the negotiations had not been finalised by the conclusion of WCAR) governmental delegates negotiated on language to be included in the final documents. Building agreement on such a sensitive issue would always be a challenging task, and the final result is still highly divisive. Australia, for example, publicly denounces the final documents of WCAR, and resists using WCAR language in all other conference negotiations.

WCAR has been highly controversial because of the intense politicisation of many of its issues. Debates at world leadership level were held during the conference on whether some of the items on its agenda actually fell within the scope of the conference - i.e. to construct practical solutions to racism - or were political hijackings of the work of the conference. The most infamous example of this debate is over the issue of whether the state of Israel is racist in its formation, and associated issues such as discrimination in land settlements. The massive, concerted campaign by states in the Arab League and the Organisation for African Unity to push through anti-Israel decisions in UN forums reached a new level at WCAR, with scarcely any agenda item being free from such statements. The results were elements of the final documents which reflect this concerted campaign.

Targeting one single nation was argued by others to be an act of racism itself, and also working against the spirit of the conference by narrowing its breadth. The United States and Israel ended up boycotting the work of the conference, and Australia along with many other nations protested heavily to the campaign against Israel. Other nations contended that the state practices of Israel were apartheid, and required intense scrutiny in the vein that South Africa suffered during its segregated years. The end result was condemnation of Israel in the WCAR Declaration and Program of Action, the only member nation to be singled out.

Other controversial issues diplomatically wrangled into the work and outcome of the Conference included those related to acknowledgement of and restitution for victims of colonialism, and the African Diaspora in particular, though there was scarcely a race-related issue that didn't raise its head at some point.

The presence of high profile people at WCAR raised the profile of certain issues. The Rev. Jesse Jackson gave his support to compensation of victims of slavery, and Yasser Arafat spearheaded the push for protecting Palestinian rights. A couple of the THIMUN delegates attended Cuban President Fidel Castro's speech at the NGO Forum, and found themselves absorbed in a swell of flag waving Cuban anti-embargo protestors chanting 'Cuba Si! Yankee No!' in support of their leader.

I was fortunate enough to see Kofi Annan give his address to the NGO delegates, where he emphasised the importance of NGO work in keeping alive the fight for equality for those who are often unable to do so themselves. I also attended speeches by Jose Ramos Horta, Thabo Mbeki and Mary Robinson, among other leading figures.

WCAR has been heavily criticised by many sources for the haphazard way it functioned as a conference. Being an incredibly large gathering, with a broad agenda, strong centralised leadership and communication was necessary to facilitate the work of the delegates. Without them, the conference proceeded along multiple tracks simultaneously, and a sense of finality, construction and conclusion was lost. The accreditation for the conference was in itself a process which took half a day, with our security passes only giving admittance to the Parallel Events area, not the conference centre itself. NGO passes for the actual governmental arena were restricted, in an effort to distribute access to as diverse a representation of NGO's as possible. The consequence was a farce, an empty NGO gallery in the plenary, as those with passes did not occupy their seats. Meanwhile thousands of delegates were denied access, even when they had confirmed meetings inside the conference centre, delegates who had travelled thousands of miles to attend, often at the expense of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights. After a few days more passes were released, and I was able to secure admittance to the governmental negotiations for three days.

The THIMUN delegation due to its unique amateur student nature, had particular difficulties in learning to operate in the massive, politicised environment of the conference. Without a specific enough agenda, any preliminary networking or lobbying prior to the conference, and the activities of the conference often being planned the day of their taking place, we often felt somewhat marginalised from WCAR's operation. I felt this was a problem with the THIMUN participation at the conference, and resulted in a sense of ineffectiveness.

As it stood, however, the volume of delegates and controversy of issues meant that many other delegations felt a similar sense of disenfranchisement, and even anger at the unfolding of the conference. Hardly any of the thousands of NGO delegates who attended proclaimed the conference a success and only a few gained something meaningful by making a political statement in the NGO Forum. Of particular interest is the outcome of the NGO Forum at WCAR, where the campaigning and multitude of political NGO's (mainly funded by Arab League nations in reference to Palestinian rights) resulted in final documentation which was highly politicised and biased in its construction. The final documents were so controversial that a coalition of high-profile NGO's, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, held a press conference denouncing the work of the NGO Forum as being counter-productive to work against racism. Further misfortune struck NGO delegates due to the elimination of NGO speaking rights in the Plenary. Thus many participants in WCAR walked away feeling either left by the wayside, or targeted by the proceedings of the conference.

What I did at the conference

In the context of the issues outlined above, my experience of WCAR was defined by a sense of independence and of exploration; both inspired by the issues addressed at the conference and the novelty of an international conference per se.

I attended a great many of the Parallel Events of the conference, on a variety of issues. All of these were informative. Some of the highlights were:

• 'Addressing Racism through Peace Education and Conflict Resolution - Lessons from Experience' - UNICEF Panel
• 'Eminent Personalities on the Impact of Racism on Sustainable Development' - UNDP Panel. Some of the personalities speaking on their experiences in fostering sustainable development included UN Goodwill Ambassadors Danny Glover (actor), Harry Bellefonte (singer) and the President of the UN Development Program.
• 'Elements of a Global Alliance against Racism: Roles and Responsibilities of the Human Rights Treaty Bodies, National Human Rights Institutions and Other Relevant Institutions' -OHCHR panel

This panel afforded me the opportunity to listen to viewpoints of members of CERD, CEDAW, CAT and the HRC. Also present was Dr Bill Jonas, Social Justice Commissioner of HREOC, whose staff I had consulted in Sydney earlier. The progressive status of Australia's National Human Rights Institution was commended at this forum.

When the opportunity was available, I spent time in the Plenary Session of the Conference, the main forum where the most important statements were made. Over 20 world leaders, as well as numerous Ministers, Heads of inter-governmental organisations and other leading figures gave speeches at the Plenary, which were witnessed by the 200-odd governmental delegations and 100 inter-governmental organisation delegations. The NGO's watched proceedings from the gallery, which while removed from the 'action', still allowed us a unique insight into the way different nations diplomatically approach the issues of the conference.

As NGO delegates, the aim of publicising and educating others of the work of our organisation was a priority, so we were always networking with the contacts we met at the conference. With a focus on youth and education, we concentrated on making THIMUN known to the NGO caucus's in these areas, some of who already had heard of THIMUN but were unaware we had a presence at WCAR. Being based in The Netherlands, we also concentrated on networking with European Union governmental delegates, and were successful in having members of our delegation meet with the Heads of Delegation of The Netherlands and Belgium. Members of the THIMUN delegation were also interviewed for radio stations in South Africa and The Netherlands, about their perspective on WCAR. Such publicity of THIMUN is essential in establishing the organisation as a credible and renowned youth NGO, and only helps to improve participation rates in The Hague as well as greater involvement in multilateral events. As a result of such networking at the WCAR, the first United Nations conference THIMUN has sent a delegation to, and as well as other liaising, Secretary-General Kofi Annan attended the 2002 Session of THIMUN, giving an address which was inspirational for all who attended.

Recreational activities at the conference

Towards the end of the conference, when it became apparent our presence would not be vital to the continuation of negotiations, the Director of the Delegation took the THIMUN students on two day trips - one to HluHluwe-Umfolozi National Park, the other to a traditional Zulu village.

The trip to the safari park allowed the group to enjoy some of the spectacular natural scenery and wildlife the country contains. It provided a welcome break to the intensity of the conference, despite the drama of an elephant charging the minibus at one point!

Of exceptional value, however, was the visit to a traditional Zulu village in a rural part of Kwa-Zulu Natal Province, and to experience the lifestyle of many South Africans. Numbering over 22 million, the Zulus are a huge demographic in South Africa, and many live in villages in a traditional manner. While men may travel to Durban to work during the week, returning home on weekends, women generally work in the village on community or family projects. Wives are still bartered for - our guide was the daughter of a Chief, and her fiancé was saving enough to purchase the 12 cows required in exchange for her. He had been saving for 8 years. While there is a King of the Zulus, he is largely a ceremonial figure, and South African law is implemented in tandem with traditional practices.

We toured the village, enjoyed a brief visit to a witch doctor, ate a traditional meal and settled on the riverbank to experiment with reed weaving for the afternoon. The people we met in the village were and friendly, and the experience was an eye-opener in many ways.

Follow up and reflections

The WCAR is still hugely controversial, and will impact on definitions, understandings and approaches to addressing racism for years to come. After WCAR the substantive issues of the conference became thematic elements of THIMUN for the 2002 Session. A follow up committee was convened in The Hague, and young people reviewed and improved upon the THIMUN policy which served as our background in attending the Durban conference.

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission staged a number of follow up events to WCAR, mainly aimed at educating the community on what occurred there, and incorporating the positive and constructive elements of the final documents into practice.

The experience I gained of the practicalities of the United Nations in Durban helped me successfully apply for a position in 2002 as a part of the Australian Delegation to the UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva. Much of my time at the CHR was spent, in keeping with Australian foreign policy, trying to block any reference to the outcomes of Durban. This in itself was a fascinating follow up, as I was essentially 'switching teams' from being an NGO supporting WCAR as a forum to express opinions, to a governmental delegate denouncing the conference as lacking credibility, and counter-productive to addressing racism.

Upon my return from WCAR, I have also shared my experiences in a number of community-based events. I shared my experiences with school children at a United Nations Youth Association regional conference in country Victoria, where I gave an address outlining the ways young people are represented in international affairs, and how individuals can be part of the process. In a similar vein, I spoke to First Year Law Students at a Faculty of Law orientation event about international opportunities while studying law.

My experience of attending the World Conference Against Racism opened up a number of doors to further participate in addressing issues of social justice, and allowed me to operate with greater understanding, knowledge and interest than would have been possible otherwise.

Personally, attending the World Conference was an immense learning experience. The abstract world of Realpolitik became alive as I witnessed world leaders make fervent statements, and ambassadors smooth over ruffled egos, while civil society expressed a thousand opinions on proceedings from outside. The once distant concepts of honour killings, African-American slavery, xenophobia in Europe, cultural repression of Tibet, Palestinian land rights and reform of treaty-monitoring bodies took on a whole new clarity as I spoke and listened to those who lived with these issues. WCAR gave me a more real and well-rounded outlook on human rights, rights which are being abused and defended all around us. From the World Conference I feel I am more realistic in my understanding of the United Nations and human rights, but still retain a sense of idealism. While at times it seems successes in human rights work are few and far between, the times they do occur invigorate and inspire people to continue to be involved in human rights.

Appendix: The THIMUN Delegation members

Observer:

John Van der Velde, Treasurer, THIMUN

INTERNET LINKS -

THIMUN:
www.thimun.org

WCAR:
www.unhchr.ch/html/racism