Friday, June 1 - last day of the PrepCom

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To define racism as we see it, as we feel it. Not using their words.

- Alberto Saldamando


The second PrepCom is over. A number of people have already left and tonight and tomorrow the rest is going home. So what have we taken from this, what have we archieved? We are both pessimistic and optimistic. Pessimistic because of all the political infighting and powerplay within some structures, pessimistic about the divisions which too many times closely follow the lines the States have drawn on a world level. Pessimistic about words which cover a world of hurt and conflict. Optimistic because a lot of people did a real good job, held meetings, produced postition papers, briefing papers, not to forget the NGO draft declaration...

We NGOs had some very practical people walking around here, people who want to move forward constructively, people who have no time or inclination for powerplay and other impractical and dividing nonsense.
Hey, 60 caucus meetings were held and 70 subjects were covered. Imagine that! We are, although we tend to be as human as the govenment representatives, still doing it.

Last day summary of practical matters

  • It is confirmed now, there will be a third PrepCom, from July 30 till August 10. Venue is still undecided, either Geneva or New York.
  • The latest version of the Governmental declaration - Adopted paragraphs of the preambule of the declaration and the adopted paragraphs of the Plan of action as per June 1, 2 p.m. can be found here
  • Accreditation of NGOs for the WCAR: keep on sending accreditation forms, the secretariat is working hard on extending the deadline.
  • All NGOs that have been accredited up till now will have to send in the registration form for each delegate and send those, with two color passport photographs of each member enclosed, to the UN office in Geneva before the 15th of July. You can download the registration form here (pdf format) and you can find the accompanying information note here.
  • NGO Forum accreditation deadline has been extended at least until the 30th of June. You can find the forms on the Sangoco website or on I CARE.
  • Amendments and additions (maximun 2 pages A4 which will be added in the annex) to the NGO Draft declaration/programme of action can be send to Major Kobese of Sangoco, major@wcar.racism.org.za until June 30.
  • The English version of the NGO Draft declaration/programme of action will, if all goes well, be up on the Sangoco website by monday and as soon as possible also on the ICARE website. Spanish and French versions are expected during the course of next week. Everyone who signed for the hardcopy and gave their e-mail address will also get it by e-mail from Sangoco.

The last NGO briefing...

The Secretariat stated that the 3rd PrepCom will either be in Geneva or New York and that it would be very important that NGOs would go there since it is the last opportunity to give input before the WCAR. NGOs will be kept up to date on the venue it is going to be. The governmental drafting group of 21 countries will go on for one week but possibly for two, in closed session.
The International Steering Committee (ISC) reported on what they have done yesterday:
They had a press conference with the International media. Already there are some articles in newspapers today. Yesterday's demonstration was a succes. At the Palais Wilson they met with a representative of Mrs. Mary Robinson. This was a rehearsel since they are going to do a big demonstration during the WCAR in Durban to influence public opinion. On visas for NGO reps who need them: Sangoco is going to meet with the South African government about this and will try to solve the matter as soon as possible. The International Steering Committee has worked hard on the program for Durban, in this way trying to fullfil their mandate.
Then came a short overview of the structure of the NGO Forum in Durban:
There are going to be 4 themes; colonization, self determination, globalization and institutionalization of racism. There will be 24 commissions throughout the Forum, a.o.: on ethnic cleansing, genocide, sexual orientation, globalization, criminal justice, reparation/compensation, Roma/travellers, Palestinians, occupied territories, gender and slavery. There will also be workshops, hearings and working groups.
Moshe More of Sangoco added to this:
Each day will start with a cultural program. About the teams who will be working in Durban, we are thinking of merging the teams who are already busy 'on the groud' there with the teams/volunteers who will be coming to Durban. There will also be exhibitions. He furthermore added that a listserv (mailinglist) for the ISC will be up in a few days.He closed-of by thanking everyone for their support.

Ooops

Wednesday evening a number of NGO represenatives worked hard on drafting the following point of order statement, to be read in the governmental plenary:


NGOs PROPOSAL FOR DEVELOPMENT

OF THE DRAFT DOCUMENTS

The International NGO community represented by the International Steering Committee, would like to express the following concerns:

  • After ten days of discussion, it appears that the drafting process is facing a number of difficulties with regard to reaching conclusions in the text of the documents. We are most anxious to see the near completion of two valuable documents, the Declaration and Programme of Action, before the Durban meeting.

 

  • Due to the slow pace of the process it seems that the Second PrepCom will be extended. The lack of concrete information with regard to this will make it extremely difficult for NGOs to bring their knowledge and expertise and contribute fully to the preparatory process. This raises a considerable concern for all NGOs who have put considerable time, efforts and resources into the process to date.

We therefore strongly suggest that those sections of the Documents on which there is basic consensus be prioritised over the coming days. This will make maximum use of the remaining days and the positive contribution of all participants, Delegates and NGOs.

We look forward to your response.

The International Steering Committee

Geneva, Thursday May 31 2001


We wanted the International Steering Committee to undersign this, and the individual ISC members (almost all of them) we consulted, were all in favor and thought it was a good and constructive Point of Order Statement. We showed it to a few govenmental delegations to 'test the waters' and to our suprise they jumped at it, they saw a way of getting it 'on the table' without having to fight with the other countries and to get a way-out of the paragraph-stalemate they got themselves into. So Thursday morning we brought it into the International Steering Committee meeting for approval but unfortunately we heard nothing. Sadly, the ISC told us this morning that it was never brought up during the meeting. A pity, a good chance at speeding up the process and saving ourselves as NGOs a lot of trouble was wasted.


And..

everybody was running around in the afternoon, doing last minute meetings or sitting exhausted in the Serpent lounge having coffee. Goodbyes werd said, hugz & kisses galore. See you in Durban! Let's e-mail! Don't forget to send me that photo! We're doing a workshop next month, are you interested?!
Partir est un peu mourir..

Party!

As closing of the PrepCom the UNHCHR have organized a concert for tonight, on the other side of the lake. It is is going on right now, but your faithful reporters can't be there since they are writing this report. Such is live. We hope everybody has a good time!



Photo-album

Some 500 photos were taken by us during the PrepCom. Only a small number of them were used, but next week we will put up a photo-album of a number (not all, mind you) of the photos we made. Just watch the ICARE site for an announcement on that. By the way, people who do not agree with having their picture on the site, please let us know by e-mail and we'll remove it immediately.





Quotes of the day:

Thank you for sharing that with us, that is a very valuable remark.

[Affirming] that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance [acts] are against the dignity of human kind, [may] constitute [flagrant/most serious] violations of human rights, offenses to humanity, obstacles to friendly and peaceful relations among peoples and nations............SAY WHAT???

In which room is that ffing meeting anyway!

(About the UN-bar where everybody hung-out to lobby)
Everybody calls it the Serpentine lounge but really, the sign says SERPENT lounge.

This conference is a lot like sex and drugs and rock 'n roll. What happened to the sex part?

Government delegate about the prolonging of the PrepCom: We have a personal live too, you know!



Contributions by others:


We would like to thank everybody who supported us, either here in Geneva or by sending us personal mail or by making us compliments on the un-discussion mailinglist.
We're blushing, actually :-).

Keep well and see you in Durban or at the third PrepCom!

Suzette Bronkhorst & Ronald Eissens,
ICARE Newsteam in Geneva.

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