Message from the High Commissioner to NGOs
15 December 2000
Dear friends and colleagues,
As the year draws to a close, I am heartened by the active role
being played by an increasing number of Non-Governmental
Organizations in the preparatory process leading up to the World
Conference against Racism in Durban next year. I am pleased to see
that there has been a real mobilization of organizations and
representatives of grassroots communities which are fighting against
racism in their countries. With the support of our Office, these
NGOs are in a better position to contribute to the process and to
advance their struggle in this area.
This mobilization of new actors includes Afro-descendants and
indigenous peoples and organizations, including women's
organizations, in all countries in the Americas; it includes
organizations of Roma and minorities in Europe, organizations of
migrant workers, or those acting on behalf of migrants, including
refugees and displaced persons, organizations and others
discriminated against on the basis of descent and ethnicity, and
youth who are also addressing racism in the UN context for the first
time.
What we have here are the seeds of a worldwide movement against
racism. In this sense, these preparations and the World Conference
itself serve as the launch pad for the movement against racism, much
as Beijing was for the women's movement -- the beginning and not the
end of a process. It is therefore vital that the momentum which has
been generated at the regional meetings in Strasbourg and Santiago,
as well as in NGO meetings such as Warsaw, continue and gather force
-- that the energy and determination to see an end to racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance is manifested in
the informal consultations, in the inter-sessional meeting, in the
other regional meetings in Dakar and Teheran, and in the second
Preparatory Committee as well, of course, as in Durban.
I hope by now many of you would have received or will receive
copies of our newsletter, entitled "Durban 2001: United against
Racism". The first issue contained an article on NGO involvement in
the preparations for the conference and practical information about
accreditation and a schedule of NGO meetings taking place prior to
the conference. Further articles of interest to NGOs will be
included in the forthcoming issues of the newsletter.
Please accept my best wishes for the coming year.
Yours sincerely,
Mary Robinson
High Commissioner for Human Rights and
Secretary-General of the World Conference against Racism,
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance
