Brussels, 11/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - The UN's international Conference against racism last week in Durban finished with a compromise which commentators are describing as demonstrating the "steadfastness of the European negotiators". On Monday, the President of the European Council, Guy Verhofstadt expressed his, "satisfaction at the role played by the EU at the Conference, which had shown on this occasion the strengthening of its common foreign policy". The Belgian Prime Minister was also eager to congratulate his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Louis Michel, "for the commitment and determination he had demonstrated once again". The Commissioner for Equal Opportunities, Anna Diamatopoulou was pleased to notice that, "Europe had shown itself to be strong and positive on the world stage, within the framework of this Conference". She thanked the Belgian Presidency, particularly, Louis Michel for the successful outcome and added that, "it was now the calm after the storm". The Commissioner stated that the Conference had provided the struggle against racism and xenophobia with both "oxygen and publicity", and out of the three Conferences on the subject (the two other conferences were held in 1978 and 1983) it was the only one to have succeeded in adopting a Declaration and a Programme of Action. Ms Diamantopoulou called on the rest of the international community and the EU to keep up the good work so that a real impact on the ground and in people's lives could be achieved. The Luxembourg minister for Foreign Affairs, Lydie Polfer, believed that the result was in large part due to the efforts of the EU, which had demonstrated that by strengthening its common foreign policy it could be an important and decisive actor in solving problems facing the rest of the world community.
Contents of the Final Declaration and Action Programme at Durban
After a number of sharp exchanges, the Conference against Racism reached a conclusion by recognising that slavery constituted a crime against humanity, deeply regretting the human suffering slavery, the slave trade, colonialism and genocide had caused. The Conference also called for an end to the violence in the Middle East and for negotiations to be resumed in order to allow Israel and the Palestinians to re-launch the peace process. These conclusions are the essential part of the two documents, a Declaration and an Action Programme, adopted in the afternoon of 8 September, following nine days of intense debate. In the Declaration, the Conference recognised: 1) the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the creation of an independent State, as well as the right of all States in the region to security, including Israel, and calls on all States to support the peace process and help guide it to a rapid and successful conclusion, in remembering that the "holocaust must never be forgotten"; 2) the fact that slavery and the slave trade, including the trans-Atlantic trade are acts against humanity and are some of the causes for and the expression of racism and xenophobia…and that Africans and the descendants of Africans, people of Asian origin and indigenous peoples have been and continue to be the victims of racism. The Declaration condemned the fact that slavery and similar practices exist today in some parts of the world and calls on countries to take immediate and urgent measures to bring an end to these practices that blatantly violate civil rights.
In the Action Programme, the Conference made particular reference to: a) reparations: it calls on developed counties, the United Nations and specialist institutions, including international financial institutions to provide additional financial resources to fight poverty in developing countries; b) The Middle East: it calls for an end to the violence and the need for counties to recognise the necessity of fighting anti-Semitism, anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia in the whole world; c) indigenous peoples: it calls on countries to co-operate with these peoples and encourage them in accessing economic activity and improving their employment prospects; d) it calls on countries to promote and fully and effectively protect civil and fundamental rights of all migrants.