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This is the last official day of
the Conference. The closing ceremony is supposed to be held now,
but instead we are in the Main Drafting Committee, and the
governments are about to try to adopt or remove the 61
outstanding paragraphs. Some of those outstanding are ready to be
adopted, but there are a large number of paragraphs that are in a
stand-off situation. These relate to Palestine, apology and
reparations for slavery and the caste issue (Para 73). We are
waiting to see what they will decide.....
Well, more paragraphs were
discussed, a few adopted, most sent off for further discussion.
It now seems inevitable that we'll continue tomorrow. Para 73 has
still not come up.
Jyothi Raj has continued her fast
through the night and into today. Nothing has passed her lips
since the evening of the 5th and this afternoon she
began to become a little delirious. Eventually she agreed to
break the fast, having made a very convincing moral statement
against the delaying tactics of the Indian government, who are
now looking to simply push the paragraph into no-man's land so it
may be dropped without due consideration.
Meanwhile in the Draft Declaration
working group, Canada has made a bold proposal for "list of
victims" (PP16-17) which would enable discrimination on the
basis of work and descent to be covered by the entire conference
documentation. The paragraph currently stands at:
| Recognizing that racism occurs on grounds of ICERD
and that such discrimination is often closely related to
discrimination based on culture, nationality and
language. |
Canada proposed the following
alternative wording:
| Acknowledging that victims can also suffer multiple
or aggravated discrimination based on other grounds that
can include inter alia sex/gender, language, religion,
political or other opinion, social origin, birth,
disability, age, HIV/AIDS status or other health
conditions, culture, social or economic status,
nationality, sexual orientation, work or other status. |
This was supported by New Zealand,
Australia and the Russian Federation, but opposed by Africa and
Asia, who have instead proposed an even weaker version of the
original:
| The World Conference recognizes that discrimination
occurs on the grounds of ICERD and that victims can
suffer multiple or aggravated forms of discrimination
based on other related grounds. |
GRULAC supported this proposal
also. Guatemala is to be convenor of informal consultations.
Posted on 2001-09-20
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