Preamble
We, the representatives of Asian and Pacific Non-Governmental Organisations and other national, regional and international civil society organizations, meeting in Tehran, Iran, during February 18-19, 2001 and in Kathmandu, Nepal during April 27-29, 2001 in preparation for the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances, to be held in South Africa in accordance with the UN General Assembly Resolution 52/111;
Reaffirming that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and inalienable, irrespective of distinction of any kind such as race, class, colour, sex, gender, language, national or ethnic identity, caste, descent, occupation, 'untouchability' religion, social origin, disability, sexual orientation, diverse gender identities, age and other factors;
Recognising that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and have the capacity to contribute constructively to the development and well-being of their
Societies, and that all human societies, including those of the Asia Pacific region, are based on the shared values of tolerance, solidarity and pluralism;
Noting with concern, the persistence and increasing spread of various forms of racism, racial and ethnic discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in all continents and regions of the world;
Declare that racism is an ideological construct that assigns a certain social group to a position of power over others on the basis of a notion of superiority, dominance and purity. It is 'scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust and dangerous and politically harmful;
Further declare that racism is the basis of gross violations of human rights and occurs in the form of unjust exploitation; it renders people stateless, creates refugees, leads to marginalization, exclusion, pauperisation, militarism, ethnic cleansing, cultural annihilation and genocide, suppression and destruction of indigenous cultures, constitutes a threat to peace and development of all human societies and, therefore, must be addressed with all appropriate resources and means, including legal mechanisms;
Consider that the roots of many contemporary manifestations of racism and racial discrimination can be located in the legacy of colonialism which created historical injustices based on ideologies of superiority, dominance and purity;
Recall that some of the worst manifestations of racism and racial discrimination have been caused by colonialism, foreign domination and militarization such as the continued occupation of Palestine, for which this body expresses grave concern;
Call on the forthcoming World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances to specifically mention within it's scope and ambit new manifestations of racism and racial discrimination including growing tendencies of religious intolerance and caste-based discrimination as evidenced in different parts of the world and include the same as a manifestation of xenophobic and racist tendencies.
The Asia-Pacific region is rich with a diversity of cultures, languages, religions and peoples. However, the nation-building process in the region has resulted in some groups being rendered stateless, refugees, internally displaced persons and migrants and being discriminated against on the basis of their cultures, languages, and religions. Today, many states in the Asia Pacific region are facing the threat of disintegration due to racial, caste-based, ethnic and other forms of discrimination and intolerance.
It is important to recognize that many conflicts in the region and around the world are caused by racism, racial and ethnic discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerances, and that therefore elimination of all forms of racism, racial and ethnic discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance is essential for creating peace and establishing respect for human rights.
Many women experience multiple discrimination due to racism and patriarchal attitudes, often compounded by religion and culture. This inter-sectionality of discrimination, especially the inter-sectionality of race and gender, makes women vulnerable to a range of violations of human rights including trafficking, exploitation, violence including rape and sexual abuse, and making them 'pawns' in situations of conflicts.
Trafficking in persons for various purposes including sexual exploitation, economic exploitation, bonded labour, forced marriage, slavery and slavery like practices is a particularly abhorrent manifestation of racial and other forms of discrimination.
The processes of globalization that include economic policies which exploit and appropriate local economies and force the implementation of structural adjustment programs actually heighten racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and multiple forms of intolerance.
Globalization promotes deregulation, privatization and liberalization of trade and investments and, in the process, intensifies patriarchy, racism, racial and ethnic discrimination, xenophobia and religious and other forms of intolerance, and impacts disproportionately on women.
All diverse communities have the right to effective political participation and self-determination at the national, regional and local level including through power sharing arrangements.
Governments have a responsibility to eliminate structural and institutional forms of racism and discrimination on the basis of race, class, colour, gender, language, national or ethnic identity, caste, descent, occupation, 'untouchability', religion, social origin, disability, sexual orientation, diverse gender identities and other factors if we are to achieve respect, equality, and human rights for all.
Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance have a special and heightened impact on individuals, groups and communities that are already disadvantaged and vulnerable to abuse, oppression and exploitation including women, young people, children, people with disabilities, people living with HIV/AIDS, gays, lesbians and persons of non-conforming gender identities, documented and undocumented migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons, indigenous and tribal peoples and trafficked persons.
It is important to recognize that while patriarchal social structures reinforce all forms of discrimination against women, racism and other forms of racial discrimination and intolerance create new forms of patriarchal subordination of women.
In this context, both racial discrimination and gender discrimination result in disproportionate power, privilege and status and in the heightened subordination of women. Women's oppression through racial and caste discrimination is heightened by other factors, resulting in multiple alienation due to class, caste, race and gender hierarchies.
We wish to congratulate the people of East Timor for their successful struggle for self-determination and independence; We also extend our solidarity to the struggles for self-determination of the peoples of Palestine, West Papua, Aceh-Sumatra, Bougainville, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura and other states and indigenous communities in the north-east of India, in the north-east of Sri Lanka, in Tibet, Kashmir, Bhutan, and Mindanao, and elsewhere in the region. Where States deny self-determination to its people these regions are rendered occupied territory.
We also wish to endorse the Declarations coming out of the NGO Forums in Santiago de Chile, Dakar, Senegal and Strasbourg, France, in particular the affirmation that 'diversity is a social, political and cultural reality, and that recognition and respect for difference is fundamental to the construction of democratic coexistence' (Santiago) and the denunciation of environmental racism including environmental deterioration represented by dumping of toxic wastes, dangerous work conditions, and dangerous and unregulated methods of extracting natural resources'
(Dakar).
Racism in the Global Context
1. Globalization's main proponents and implementers are the global powers led by the US, Japan and the European Union, the transnational and multinational corporations (TNCs and MNCs), the local ruling elite and the governments that they control.
2. That globalization gives rise to employment is belied by the huge corps of the unemployed and underemployed, especially among the women and youth, that it leaves in its wake. It likewise limits the future of youth to being underpaid, exploited and, docile workers.
3. Globalization aggravates the situation of women already marginalized by race, caste and class by displacing them from traditional forms of employment and often forcing them into exploitative work. This is manifest in the increasing feminization of poverty especially among groups most vulnerable to racist practices.
4. Trade related intellectual property rights or TRIPS are used by TNC/MNCs to expropriate indigenous knowledge and practices, plants and even indigenous peoples' human cells, robbing people of their traditional knowledge-base of agriculture, seeds and medicine. Dumping of banned medications, drugs and chemicals no longer permitted and of commercial value in the developed world, and of toxic waste is rampant in the southern hemisphere, with total disregard for the dangers that this poses to the environment, health and wellbeing of the people of these regions.
5. Indigenous peoples lose their land, culture and even self-identity as their ancestral domains and natural resource-bases are besieged and destroyed by mal-development projects of the TNC/MNCs and governments.
6. Foreign loans have been used by the IMF, World Bank, the ADB and other international and regional finance institutions as instruments of control whereby financially weak countries are either granted or denied loans depending on their acceptance of bank conditionalities. Foreign loans, especially those which benefited government officials and their cronies more than the citizens, should be cancelled.
7. Trade in services not covered by the original General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) are now part of the WTO agreements. It impacts on education in terms of further inaccessibility especially to vulnerable and discriminated sectors as educational institutions are privatized and commercialized. Health and other basic services on the other hand, become sources of profit-making thereby denying the provision of essential services to the impoverished, the elderly, women and children and those targeted by racism.
8. When confronted by dissent and resistance from the sectors of society that suffer the negative impact of globalization and are victimized by racist attitude and acts and other forms of discrimination including caste, globalization's main proponents do not hesitate to use their resources and the power of the State in order to suppress protests using violence, militarization and 'total war' against peoples.
9. Human rights and international humanitarian laws are violated throughout the Asia Pacific region with impunity by the global powers, especially by the US and other repressive governments and authoritarian States, making a mockery of the universality of human rights. When this happens, the women, children and other sectors that face marginalization and discrimination are the most vulnerable.
10. Arms control is imposed on relatively weaker countries to ensure military advantage of the global powers, while they continue with arms production and sales guided by militarist and racist minds and benefiting the military-industrial complex. In exchange for super profits, racists
and repressive governments are given access to extensive war tools while peoples' calls for disarmament and genuine arms control are ignored.
11. The process of globalization as implemented by the WTO regime further marginalizes Dalits, indigenous peoples and minorities who are already a deprived section of society. In the name of privatization, globalization has destroyed whatever opportunities were created through affirmative actions initiated by governments. The State is consciously withdrawing from its obligation to provide key social services such as education, health and employment with a devastating impact on groups that face all forms of discrimination. The policies of the World Bank and IMF such as devaluation and down-sizing of the labour force adversely affect the already marginalized living standards of marginalized communities and groups such as Dalits, indigenous peoples and minorities.
12. Globalization describes the ever-increasing integration of human society at economic, social, cultural and political levels. It historically derives from the process of colonial integration of the world. Globalization is therefore an iniquitous structure, one that is based on unequal power relations. It has promoted institutional racism at both the national and international level.
13. At one level, globalization has seen the continuation of the domination of one-time colonial powers together with newly established economic 'big powers' over the world system. At another level, the global order of nation states has seen the emergence of a multitude of nationalisms from which have developed a number of instances of ethnic hegemonisms. This has resulted in the creation of ethnic exclusivist states.
14. At the global level, we see the iniquity of this system within the international community, for example in the United Nations and in the international financial institutions in which the globally dominant powers retain control. The political structures that are required to facilitate the free flow of capital and unregulated financial speculation are themselves authoritarian and have led to repression, exclusion, intolerance and violence.
15. This global hegemony by the metropolitan powers has resulted in the continuing domination of European-originated cultures and the marginalization of other world civilizations. The current strategies of the global big powers contribute to create a pervasive culture of racism, one example being Islamophobia. Xenophobia and intolerance is sharply reflected in the global mass media, for example, in its racist bias in the reporting of the Palestinian problem and its coverage of the aggression against Iraq.
16. This iniquitous global system has its ramifications in its impact on the entirety of human society but more especially on the numerous sectors of people most adversely affected. Racism, discrimination and intolerance are but one aspect of this impact and affect various social sectors.
17. The Asia Pacific NGO Forum focussed on sub-themes important and relevant to the Asia Pacific region and also on the impact of racism, racial and ethnic discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance on specific groups, such as women, Dalits, Burakumin, indigenous peoples, documented and undocumented migrants, migrant workers, trafficked persons, refugees, displaced persons, and people living under foreign occupation.
18. Globalization aggravates the situation of indigenous women. Multi-national corporations and the State reinforce each other in carrying out policies and projects to exploit the resource base. Mega projects including the construction of dams and the development of eco-tourism, deny the rights of indigenous peoples forcing many indigenous women to become migrant workers or prostitutes. Globalization has also displaced indigenous women's knowledge e.g. seeds and traditional medicine.
- Gender and Racism
19. Women in the Asia Pacific region face differentiated experiences as a result of their belonging to different races, classes, religions, ethnicities, castes, sexual identities and other situations. Governments and civil societies have failed to understand the inter-sectionality of gender and racism.
20. Issues of racism, racial and ethnic discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance must be approached within the context of an understanding of the inter-sectionality of all forms of discrimination, including gender.
21. We recognize the specific impact of racism, racial and ethnic discrimination, and all other forms of discrimination on the human rights of women, specifically women belonging to marginalised and minority communities, and that all forms of violence against women are heightened by racism, caste-based, racial and ethnic discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
22. An urgent problem created by the growth of conflict is the increase of all forms of violence, including sexual violence against women. Intolerance in the context of conflict places many restrictions on women's freedom and mobility.
23. Women's experience of violence in situations of armed conflict is related to their position within the community and in the family, as well as to their sexuality. Violence against women in situations of conflict is used to shame and punish families and communities and includes systematic rape, sexual torture, forced pregnancies, forced abortions, sterilization implants, trafficking in women and girls, and imposition of norms of behaviour.
24. One major manifestation of racism, racial and ethnic discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance is a denial of women's right to political participation, self-determination, economic, social and cultural rights, and to make decisions regarding their reproductive capacities.
25. Indigenous women and women of other marginalized communities experience multiple forms of discrimination due to the nexus of class, gender and their other multiple identities. They are denied their right to self-determination, their right to own and inherit property and to control resources; they are treated as having a lower status than men and are often excluded from political leadership and participation. Their equal status is not recognized by the State and dominant culture, or by the people within their communities and family.
Caste and Racism
26. Caste is a historically entrenched, false ideological construct which often has religious and ideological sanction, and which allows for the treatment of some people as inferior. Casteism and racism operate at personal, social and structural levels.
27. Caste is descent and occupation based and hereditary in nature, determined by one's birth into a particular caste. Caste and descent-based discrimination affects nearly 240 million people in the Asia Pacific region, for example Dalits in India and Nepal and Burakamin in Japan, irrespective of the faith that they practice.
28. "Untouchability" (the subjugation and denial of the basic human rights of people labelled as "polluted" or "impure") is the most insidious manifestation of caste-based discrimination in the Asia Pacific region, specifically in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal.
Caste-based discrimination de facto denies access to public services including housing, education, health, land, employment, social services and other resources normally available to citizens of a country as a right. We assert that Untouchability is a Crime Against Humanity.