CHAVEZ BEGINS NEW TERM WITH ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CHALLENGES

Civil Society Groups Denounce Racism and Discrimination

Last December, representatives of NGOs and civil society groups from all over Latin America gathered in Santiago, Chile at the Conference of Citizens Against Racism, Xenophobia, Intolerance and Discrimination. The purpose of the meeting was to agree on the positions to be presented at a worldwide conference against racism and discrimination in South Africa late this summer. More than 1,500 people attended, including representatives of indigenous, Afro-Latino and other ethnic groups, women's groups, migrants, displaced persons and refugees.

The meeting coincided with protests by the Mapuche Indians of southern Chile to demand the restoration of their ancestral lands. Indeed, one of the main themes of the conference was the indigenous movements of the Americas and their demands. One of the most important of these, according to Ecuadorian representative Blanca Chancoso, is ensuring that indigenous communities are not broken up.

Another theme of the conference was xenophobia, the main target of which was identified as migrant workers. Delegates also called for legislation to make the traffic in undocumented immigrants a serious crime in all countries of the region.

Among the featured speakers was Mary Robinson, the UN human rights commissioner, who noted that people of indigenous or African descent continue to be the main targets of racism and xenophobia in the Americas. Discrimination against them often takes the form of illegal detentions, police brutality, land expropriation and judicial neglect of their cases.

"Structural inequalities in the distribution of wealth and income, and the close association between racial discrimination and extreme poverty, define many of the problems of racism and xenophobia in the Americas and the Caribbean," Robinson said. A fundamental step in overcoming racism, she argued, is acknowledging that it exists. "If states are ready to open their minds to recognize that racism is a problem, then there is some hope of making progress."

"A lot of international accords are signed but never put into practice," added conference delegate Laurie Wisberg. "There's a lot of work ahead of us, and it is the duty of civil society to apply pressure to make it happen."

The conference's final declaration offered a definition of democracy as "the structure which harbors ongoing dialogue in common understanding and consensus, respecting the right to diversity." In pursuit of this goal, it encouraged the participation of civil society organizations "on the basis of their capacity and representativeness," calling for international norms against racism and xenophobia. The declaration condemned all ideologies, whether held by governments or private groups, that justify discrimination on the basis of race, immigration, national origin, gender, age, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or culture. Although it praised UN efforts to lead a global campaign to eradicate racism, the statement criticized the slowness of this program's implementation. It demanded that individual countries' plans of action recognize the need to combat racism internally, while insisting on antidiscriminatory provisions in the trade agreements they sign with other countries.

The talks in Santiago succeeded in identifying some of the most serious characteristics of racism and discrimination in the Americas. The task at the South African conference will be to establish effective mechanisms to halt these trends.