In September of 2001, the World Conference on Antiracism will take place in Durban, South Africa. This Conference will bring together many of the actors involved in antiracism and interculturalism across the globe. Preparations for this began in earnest in mid-2000. A regionalised approach was decided upon; as part of this process, a European Governmental Forum was organised for the 11th through 13th of October, 2000. This brought together not just EU members, but also members of the Council of Europe, to agree positions on antiracism and interculturalism that would be addressed to the World Conference.
Between the 9th and 11th of October, a meeting took place in Strasbourg of some NGOs from Europe. The meeting was designed to produce a set of recommendations to the European Governmental Forum.
The HEEU were invited to send a representative to the NGO forum. The HEEU applied for and received finance from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which covered the costs of the trip. Preliminary documentation from the organising committee comprised proposed Intergovernmental papers, and proposed NGO commentaries on these papers. Four sub-categories within these papers covered the legal; policy; education; and information/media areas, after discussion it was decided that the HEEU approach should focus on the policy area. Within this, there were some specific points of focus that the HEEU believe should be addressed: the need to recognise the gendered nature of ethnic discrimination; the need for data other than statistical data (i.e., qualitative data that attempts to interpret other aspects of peoples experiences who are subject to ethnic discrimination or abuse); the need to ensure that such data are not used as a stick with which to beat ethnic minorities. While there were many other points within the documents which could have been addressed, it was felt that focussing on these offered a possibility of getting something positive from the workshops.
There were eight other people from Ireland at the NGO forum, representing Pavee Point, Comhlamh/Le Cheile; Justice and Peace, Limerick; Irish Women’s Ethnic Minority Forum; Mahon Community Development Programme and the African Refugee Network. While there seemed to be little consistency in the manner in which people were asked to attend the forum, the participants were from a diverse set of backgrounds. However, many of the Irish participants there felt that they were specifically representing the opinion of their own organisation, rather than an Irish position.
There was a consistency of approach among the Irish participants that enabled a team approach to be taken in attempts to have changes incorporated into the NGO document, and through this to influence the content of the European Governmental document.
The forum itself comprised introductory speeches for the morning of the Tuesday, the 13th, followed by workshops for the afternoon. At the last minute, it was decided that there should be an additional workshop on asylum-seekers and refugees. The workshop sizes were large - about 50 participants on average; translations into English and French were provided. Within the workshops, there was a good deal of agreement on the issues. A rapporteur was appointed prior to each workshop, who would report back to the plenary the following morning. However, in the case of our workshop, the chairperson acted as rapporteur.
There was a meeting of all NGO representatives late that Tuesday evening, where there were animated discussions concerning the forum and committee-election processes, without any conclusions being drawn.
Updated papers from most workshops were presented at the plenary the following morning. Due to time and resource constraints, only English-language versions of the papers were produced, which caused some distress among the non-English- speaking participants. A lively discussion followed. Some of the themes that were raised during this were: the need to embed within the papers the origins of much of current racism in colonialism; the need for mainstreaming of intercultural/antiracist activity; the use of terms such as ‘tolerate’, ‘race’ etc.; the need for a gendered approach. There was an interesting presentation by the Black Police Association, an organisation originating in April 1993, the same time, coincidentally, as the Stephen Lawrence murder (there is good information on the Black Police Association, and indeed on racism/antiracism on their website: www.bpa.cc). The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, gave a terse but very supportive address, independently suggesting much of what had arisen during the previous days discussions. The meeting concluded around midday. The Government forum began in the afternoon. It was not possible for me to attend this forum, but I was updated on it at a later meeting in Dublin of those who were present. It was initially anticipated that only selected participants from the NGO forum would be allowed to participate, and influence, the Governmental forum. As things happened, the workshop fora were much more open to contributions from the NGO participants. A reading of the final European Government document shows how those important issues highlighted by the NGO forum have been taken onboard by the European Governments. These included recommendations on the collection and publication of accurate data, the gendering of policies and practices, and the development of monitoring mechanisms for both antiracism initiatives and their outcomes. These will consequently be brought to the table at the World Conference against Racism.
For further information on the above, see:
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) website: www.ecri.coe.int
Internet Centre AntiRacism Europe (ICARE): http://www.icare.to
National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI): homepage.eircom.net/~racismctee/
World Conference Against Racism, Racial Dicrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance http://www.hri.ca/racism/
Mike FitzGibbon, Minority Ethnic Groups Project; HEEU megs@ucc.ie
Table of Contents of Newsletter 10