Update on the United Nations World Conference on Racism
By Dr. Conrad W. Worrill
(Dr. Worrill is the National Chairman of the National Black United Front/NBUF, located at 12817 S. Ashland Ave., Flr. 1, Calumet Park , Illinois, 60827, 708-389-9929, Fax: 708-389-9819, E-mail: nbufchi@allways.net, Web page: www.nbufront.org.)
The National Black United Front, Chicago Chapter will present a community forum that will address and update the most important organizing efforts throughout the African World Community on the United Nation, sponsored World Conference on Racism, scheduled to be held in South Africa in 2001.
Recently, the first session of the preparatory community for the World Conference on Racism took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from May 1st through May 5th. During those deliberations many African, non-governmental organizations, led by the December 12th Movement, based in Brooklyn, New York, came together and agreed on the following points:
1. African people are victims of racism, specifically the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and its ongoing affects.
2. The Economic Basis of Racism.
3. The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade must be declared a Crime Against Humanity.
4. Reparations are due to the African descendants of the victims of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, both in the Diaspora and the continent; who continue to suffer egregious human rights violations.
5. African people in the Western hemisphere are one people by virtue of common origin and circumstances and may speak as one group regarding human rights conventions and inventions, notwithstanding the need to address the specific effects of racism as impacted by location and culture.
In this regard, the community forum on Friday, June 30th, sponsored by NBUF will feature Sister Colette Pean of the December 12th Movement, International Secretariat to the United Nations, from Brooklyn, New York. Sister Pean has been an organizer for many years and has vast knowledge of the workings of the United Nations, particularly as it relates to human rights issues. Sister Pean will give a status report on the development of this conference and the implications it will have for African people throughout the world. Sister Pean will specifically focus her remarks on the points listed above.
Also featured will be one of Chicago=s premier vocalist, Maggie Brown. Maggie performs a one woman show: LEGACY: Our Wealth of Music, a musical demonstration/lecture about the history and evolution of African American music throughout the country. She tours in concert promoting her self-produced, debut, solo recording: From My Window, released on compact disc and cassette on her independent label: Mag Pie Records. Maggie also performs two duets with the legendary Abbey Lincoln on her latest CD: Wholly Earth, which was released January 1999 on the Verve Label.
The United Nations Committee on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, through the Center for Human Rights, established for three years, in 1993, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance.
The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations confirmed this mandate and assigned it to Mr. Maurice Glele-Ahanhanzo of Benin.
At its fifty-second session, the Commission, by resolution in 1996, expressed its full support and appreciation for the Special Rapporteur=s work and decided to extend his mandate for a period of three years.
Since the establishment of the Special Rapporteur=s Office, Mr. Glele-Ahanhanzo offices examined racism and racial discrimination in Austria, Canada, the United States, the Russian Federation, France, Israel, Indonesia, Brazil, and Italy and many other countries.
In 1997, the Special Rapporteur=s Office observed Athat racism and racial discrimination persist in various regions of the world, both in their structural, economic and social forum and in the form on xenophobia. Theories of racial inequality are raising their head while at the some time modern communications technologies, especially the Internet, are being perniciously employed to ferment racial hatred, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism.@
In this regard, the Special Rapporteur made a number of recommendations which have been approved by the General Assembly and the Commission. These recommendations are: A(a) to convene a world conference on racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia and (b) to consider action at the international levelBbeginning studies, research, and joint action immediatelyBover the use of the Internet as a vehicle for racist propaganda.@
When we discuss racism, we must be clear on this term that is so widely used by so many people. Through our study groups, over the years, with Dr. Anderson Thompson, we have concluded that racism is AThe direct and overall physical and psychological subordination and subject of one racial group over another for the purpose of maximum political and economic exploitation which is based on the belief (supportable by religious doctrine or scientific data) that either because of heredity (gene, family) or, culture (social environment) the dominant race in power is superior to the dominated and powerless race.@
The manifestation of racism in the western European world has become institutionalized in a worldwide system of white supremacy. White supremacy continues to have a devastating impact on African people throughout the world.
It is in this context that African people should aggressively participate in the United Nations World Conference on racism that is scheduled to be held in South Africa in 2001. We must get prepared to do battle on the world stage at this conference.
When Mr. Glele-Ahanhanzo visited the United States in 1994, he found what most African people in America are keenly aware ofBAIt should be explicitly acknowledged that 30 years of intense struggle against racism and racial discrimination have not yet made it possible to eliminate the consequences of over 300 years of slavery and racial discrimination, particularly where African Americans are concerned.
Against this backdrop, the National Black United Front/Chicago Chapter, is organizing a major Community forum on the World Conference on Racism, on Friday, June 30, 2000. The doors open at 6:00 p.m. and the program begins at 7:00 p.m. Be sure to join us on this evening of culture and enlightenment with the vocal styling of Ms. Maggie Brown and Sister Colette Pean giving us an update on the United Nations World Conference on Racism.