Ei-iE

EI, together with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Public Services International (PSI), adopted a statement supporting the work of the 2009 United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) currently held from 20-24 April in Geneva, Switzerland.

“This Conference constitutes an important opportunity to reaffirm the concrete commitment to fight racism and discrimination in all their forms, in all organs of society, all around the world,” said Fred van Leeuwen, EI's General Secretary, stressing that “the engagement in dialogue and discussions has more to gain from the presence of member states than from their absence”.

The purpose of the Review Conference is to evaluate progress towards the goals set by the "Durban Declaration and Programme of Action", adopted at the 2001 WCAR held in Durban, South Africa.

The current financial crisis affects vulnerable groups such as informal workers, small-scale farmers, migrant workers and their families, unemployed people and child labourers very profoundly. Indigenous peoples, that already make up 15% of the world's poor, will be even more affected if their rights are still not acknowledged. The current conference is an opportunity to promote equality and non-discrimination, which also are trade union priorities.

EI calls on all its member organisations to make all efforts to urge their governments to sign, ratify and implement all the international human rights instruments related to the fight against racism and discrimination, such as the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and its provisions, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and its optional protocol.

EI reaffirms its commitments to eradicate racism and all forms of discrimination in the workplace and in school. Together with ITUC and PSI, EI will contribute to the conference in the coming days.

Please find below the Joint Civil Society Declaration on Participation in the Durban Review Conference, co-signed by EI:

-----------

19 April 2009

JOINT CIVIL SOCIETY DECLARATION ON PARTICIPATION IN THE DURBAN REVIEW CONFERENCE

We, the undersigned NGOs and trade unions, have been actively involved in the preparation of the United Nations Conference on the review of the Declaration and Action Plan adopted in Durban on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia an related intolerance. We strongly reaffirm the obligation of the State members of the United Nations to implement their international commitments.

We share a common objective that the international community should move forward together in the global fight against racism and discrimination, with a concrete determination to fight these scourges.

This Conference constitutes an important opportunity to reaffirm the concrete commitment to fight racism and discrimination in all their forms, in all organs of society, all around the world.

The draft outcome document presented to the Conference is acknowledged by our organisations as an important breakthrough in the negotiations, whereby countries have made significant efforts to find consensual language to express jointly the past, present and future challenges and build upon the Durban declaration and plan of Action.

Our organisations thus urge UN member Sates to participate constructively in the Conference, as an active expression of their humble recognition of the challenges faced by humanity in resolving the scourge, and a conviction that collective action is capable of promoting unity between different regions, cultures, groups and peoples.

In this context, we regret the absence of some States, whose involvement would have promotted the universal reach of the fight against racism and discrimination and urge other Governments which have not yet confirmed their decision to constructively participate in the review conference and demonstrate the willingness to engage against racism. .

FIDH – International Federation for Human Rights HRW – Human Rights Watch ITUC – International Trade Union Confederation Democracy Coalition Project Education International Public Services International ARTICLE 19 - Global Campaign for Free Expression Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies FORUM-ASIA – Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network Latin American and Caribbean International Committee on the Durban Review Process Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and African diaspora Women's Network Brazilian Articulation of black women's NGOs Brazilian Women's Articulation Brazilian Dialogues Against Racism International Gays and Lesbians Human Rights Commission Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education