wfn.org | WCC final WCAR update

["Sheila Mesa" <smm@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Update Up-01-32
For Immediate Use
8 September 2001

WCAR: another chance to start again

Cf. WCC Press Update, Up-01-31, of 7 September 2001
Cf. WCC Press Update, Up-01-30, of 5 September 2001

"It is important to realize the historical importance of this
gathering of the victims of racism from around the world. It was
an unprecedented moment for humanity," said Marilia Schuller,
World Council of Churches (WCC) programme executive for
combatting racism, at the closure of the World Conference Against
Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance
(WCAR) on Saturday 8 September.

After a week of painstaking debate on texts of a declaration and
a programme of action for governments to adopt, there is little
hope that anyone will be entirely satisfied. By United Nations'
(UN) tradition, the clocks were stopped at midnight on Friday,
when the conference was due to end, as the working groups carried
on into the next day. But some serious divisions remained.

"What the victims are calling for is powerful. What the
governments finally decide to put on paper is relevant for
advocacy work in the years ahead. But it will not diminish the
commitment of people here. We might be disappointed in the
governments, but we will go on," Schuller declared. Recalling
Archbishop Desmond Tutu's words that "governments don't always
represent their people", "they are proving that here," she said.

Archbishop Tutu had been speaking on behalf of the Ecumenical
Caucus at a press conference in Durban on September 5. "In this
new millennium, God is saying: 'I am giving us another chance to
start again'. It is important for us here in Durban to announce
to the world that we are saying: 'Yes we are listening to God',"
Tutu had told about 300 media representatives.

A WCC delegation drawn from its member churches, including South
Africa's churches, spent the week monitoring the debates and
speaking to the government delegates on issues important to the
WCC constituency.

Dalits' struggle 
Even before the conference, the recognition of the Dalit
struggle in India was a controversial issue. The Indian
government tried to keep it off the agenda, and continued its
efforts to do so in Durban, focusing on a particular paragraph
(73) that refers to discrimination on the basis of work and
descent - the compromise terminology used to avoid the word
"caste", to which the Indian government objects. (

"I am happy about the overwhelming support extended by the
international community to the Dalits during both the
intergovernmental meeting and the non-governmental organizations
(NGO) Forum which preceded it," said Rev. Yesudoss Moses of the
Dalit Concerns desk of the National Council of Churches of India
and a member of the WCC delegation. "The visibility of Dalits at
the WCAR will no doubt double the confidence of Dalits in their
struggle against caste-discrimination."

Women: an intersectional approach
WCC delegation members were also active in the Women's Caucus at
the NGO Forum and during the intergovernmental meeting. The
caucus had been formed at the first preparatory meeting for the
WCAR, and had focussed their work on an intersectional approach
to racism, racial discrimination and other categories of
marginalization such as sex, gender language, religion, sexual
orientation, caste, HIV/AIDS, disability, and refugees or
migrants. Attempts by some governments to delete paragraphs on
intersectionality caused dismay among NGOs.

Palestine
By far the most controversial and prominent issue, both during
the NGO Forum and the intergovernmental conference, was that of
Palestine. Wording in documents from the NGO Forum and in the
governments' draft texts caused ongoing controversy, and resulted
in the withdrawal of the US and Israeli governments. 

In New York, the Rev. Dr Robert W. Edgar, general secretary of
the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA said, "The
United States decision to withdraw its delegation... prejudges
the conference's ultimate declaration... The US government made
its point, but at an unfortunately heavy cost... In walking out,
the United States forfeited a critically important opportunity to
address with courage the legacy, tenacity and toll of racism."

Speaking of the US departure, WCC delegation leader Bishop
Mvumelwano Dandala, president of the South African Council of
Churches, said, "My despair is that a nation that celebrates
democracy like the USA finds it difficult to pursue vigorous
dialogue in a situation where it finds itself in a minority. This
is a terrible message to young democracies who have ideals of
replacing war with dialogue".

The WCC delegation was aware that certain references to Israel
in the NGO Forum document were outside the WCC's policy
framework, and therefore unacceptable to the Council.
Nevertheless, in order to remain faithful to the process of
working with such a wide spectrum of the victims of racism, the
delegation affirmed the process which led to the NGO document:
"The WCC has always worked to listen to the voices of the
powerless and victims of oppression," Schuller explained. "The
document, of over 70 pages, includes issues from all over the
world. These issues cannot be rejected. The total document
represents a significant voice of those who are rarely heard,"
she said.

"During the NGO Forum," declared the WCC delegation in a
statement issued on Friday, September 7, "in keeping with WCC
policy, the WCC delegation supported the right of
self-determination for Palestinians, the right to return and the
establishment of a Palestinian state. It also affirmed the right
of the State of Israel to exist, and condemned anti-Semitism.
There are some statements in the NGO Forum document which are
outside the WCC's policy framework, and which the WCC cannot
support, such as: equating Zionism with racism, describing Israel
as an apartheid state, and the call for a general boycott of
Israeli goods."

Reparations for slavery and colonialism
The Ecumenical Caucus, of which the WCC delegation was part,
addressed another major conference issue, that of reparations. It
called for churches and governments to acknowledge that they have
benefitted from the exploitation of Africans and African
descendants, Asians and Asian descendants and Indigenous Peoples
through slavery and colonialism. "We are clear that the
trans-Atlantic, trans-Pacific and trans-Saharan slave trades, and
all forms of slavery, constitute crimes against humanity," said
the Caucus statement.

Indigenous rights
Indigenous representatives came to the Durban conference calling
on governments to remove any expressions that limit Indigenous
rights to their land and territorial domains from the
governments' draft declaration. But they were confronted with a
clause in the draft text (27) that even questioned the term
"Indigenous Peoples". This was already a debate at the time of
the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993. The
Durban draft proposed that the use of the words "Indigenous
Peoples" should not prejudice the outcome of ongoing
international negotiations on other texts, particularly the draft
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, still being
negotiated within ECOSOC in the UN. 

Indigenous representatives in Durban regarded the wording of
clause 27 as a tremendous setback. "Indigenous Peoples are being
told by the UN that, unlike any other individual, group or people
in the world, our status and fundamental human rights are not
inherent, inalienable and universal, but rather to be derived
from negotiations subject to the prejudice and self-interest of
UN States," said Lucy Mulenkei, a member of the WCC delegation.
Speaking to the government plenary on behalf of the Indigenous
Caucus, "If the declaration contains any language which derogates
the rights of Indigenous Peoples as peoples in international law,
then the UN will be guilty of practising and perpetuating
discrimination within its own processes," she said.

Working ecumenically
Throughout the Durban conference, the WCC delegation joined
similar delegations from other churches and related agencies in
an Ecumenical Caucus. It made a joint statement in which it
called on all churches to "acknowledge our complicity with, and
participation in, the perpetuation of racism, slavery and
colonialism, or we are not credible". The caucus saw such
acknowledgements as "critical in leading to necessary acts of
apology, confession, repentance and reconciliation, of healing
and wholeness". 

A highlight for the WCC delegation was an ecumenical service,
attended by most Durban church leaders, followed by a candlelight
march to the City Hall and a short service of commitment to the
struggle against racism held outside the building. "You don't
know how much it means to us that the WCC has come to be with us
at this time," Anglican Bishop Reuben Philip explained. In
response, Schuller said she felt that the close ties between the
WCC and the churches of South Africa, so strong during the
apartheid era, had been rekindled by the ecumenical commitment at
the WCAR.

"The presence of the WCC at this conference was a powerful
reminder of the power and relevance of the Incarnation; God's
presence in the pain and suffering of the world," Bishop Dandala
declared. 

"Many continue to find hope in life as they are reminded that
God does not shun the difficult and confusing contradictions of
human experience. This conference was no different," he said.
"This conference has shown clearly that the way ahead for the
world in this century will not be forged by governments alone,
but by ordinary women, men and youth. The challenge for the
church is to learn how it will walk this journey."

The WCC submission to the WCAR is available on both the WCAR and
the WCC websites
(www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/wcar-index-e.html)

Photos of the Conference are available on the WCC website:
(http://wcc-coe.org/photo/events/events.html)

For further information, please contact Karin Achtelstetter,
Media Relations Officer           Tel:  (+41.22) 791.61.53  
	Mobile:  (+41) 79.284.52.12

**********

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of churches,
now 342, in more than 100 countries in all continents from
virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is
not a member church but works cooperatively with the WCC. The
highest governing body is the assembly, which meets approximately
every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general
secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

World Council of Churches
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