Message from the UN HR High Commissioner to NGOs

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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 16:34:12 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Message from the UN HR High Commissioner to NGOs

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Laurie Wiseberg <[email protected]>

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

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