wfn.org | Presbyterians to attend UN anti-racism conference

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6808 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

22-August-2001
01291

Presbyterians to attend UN anti-racism conference

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - Several representatives of the Presbyterian Church (USA) will
travel to South Africa later this month to attend a United Nations-sponsored
world conference on racism.

The eight-day-long United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which will include a
separate meeting of representatives of non-governmental organizations
(NGOs), will begin on Aug. 31 in Durban, South Africa.

This will be the third World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) since 1997,
when the UN General Assembly acknowledged the ongoing reality of racism and
the emergence of new forms of discrimination and xenophobia and called on
member governments to address these issues in a global forum.

"I think what this conference will actually do, will be to bring, for a
short time, a global examination of certain forms of racism and racial
discrimination," said Laura Mariko Cheifetz, gender-justice program
coordinator at the Presbyterian United Nations Office, who will attend the
conference as a delegate of the World Council of Churches. "The fact that
the UN and the international community is gathering around this, and there's
so much energy from civil society, makes this really promising, and rather
unprecedented."

The conference in Durban - the first WCAR since the dismantling of apartheid
in South Africa - is the culmination of several years of work and
preparation by governments and NGOs. Participants are expected to finalize a
declaration against racism and a program of action to help eliminate racism
and other forms of intolerance.

The NGO forum, the civil-society part of the conference, will run from Aug.
28 through Sept. 1. Another related meeting, a two-day Youth Summit on
racism for people under age 30, will start on Aug. 26. Nineteen people are
registered to represent the PC(USA) at the NGO forum and the conference.

"My hope is that people will come back having stretched their own thinking
about racism and racial discrimination," said PC(USA) delegate June Lorenzo,
who serves on the denomination's Special Task Force on Native American
Ministries, "and that as representatives of the PC(USA), we will take
seriously the need to interpret and implement what we take from the NGO
forum and the WCAR."

Others who will represent the denomination at the forum and the conference
include Rev. Helen Locklear, associate director of the PC(USA)'s Racial
Ethnic Ministries Program Area; Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory, director of the
Presbyterian Washington Office; Rev. Jon Chapman, the PC(USA)'s area
coordinator for Southern and East Africa; Jennifer Butler, associate for
global issues in the Presbyterian UN Office; Jenny Kim, of the Presbyterian
Peacemaking Advisory Committee; Rev. Curtis Jones, of the Advocacy Committee
on Racial-Ethnic Concerns; and the Rev. Mark Koenig, associate for the
PC(USA)'s Antiracism Program.

Last year's General Assembly affirmed and approved the anti-racism
activities of the UN and the PC(USA) in a resolution urging each PC(USA)
presbytery to organize at least one educational event on racism and racial
intolerance - reiterating a call made in the 1999 policy paper, Facing
Racism: A Vision of the Beloved Community.
The resolution also called upon the U.S. government to support the
conference and ongoing UN efforts to address racism. The United States
threatened to boycott the event if related documents equated Zionism with
racism, or made mention of reparations for slavery and colonialism.

The Presbyterian United Nations Office has prepared an information and
advocacy packet on the World Conference Against Racism. It is available on
the World Wide Web at: www.ew2000plus.org/racism_packet.htm. To order a
printed version, call (212)-697-4568.

A follow-up consultation sponsored by the Presbyterian UN Office is
scheduled for Nov. 14-16 in New York City. For information, contact the UN
Office or visit http://horeb.pcusa.org/peacemaking/racism.htm
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