Post-Durban Information Note 6 - Declaration and Programme of
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Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 19:01:27 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Post-Durban Information Note 6 - Declaration and Programme of
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Laurie Wiseberg <[email protected]>
Post-Durban Information Note 6 - Declaration and Programme of
Friends:
You will all be pleased to know that, during the final days of
2001, agreement was reached on the Declaration and Programme of Action
of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination,
Xenophobia and Related Intolerance adopted in Durban, South Africa on
8 September 2001. This clears the way for the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights to begin actively implementing, in
cooperation with all concerned, the anti-discrimination agenda
elaborated in the final documents of the Durban Conference.
The issuance of the final report of the World Conference had
been delayed principally because of a difference of views or
perceptions concerning the placement of several paragraphs in the
Declaration and Programme of Action. In a letter dated 27 December
2001, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Minister of Foreign Affairs of South
Africa, informed the High Commissioner that, "having taken all
considerations and views into account I have decided as President of
the Conference that the text of the Durban Declaration and Programme
of Action circulated at the briefing of Permanent Missions in Geneva
on 24 September 2001 by and with the authority of the secretariat,
should be published without further delay. The Secretariat should make
the necessary technical improvements to the text without changing the
substance and include the existing subtitles." Mr. Louis Michel,
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, the then-representatives of
the Presidency of the European Union, was informed of this request. He
indicated to the High Commissioner that the position of Foreign
Minister Zuma resolved all outstanding issues and that the Declaration
and Programme of Action could be published as soon as possible.
I am, therefore, attaching an electronic version of the
Declaration and Programme of Action in English, to this e-mail. It has
also being posted on the web at <www.unhchr.ch>. As soon as the text
is available in the other UN languages, they will be posted on the
OHCHR website. In addition, the report of the Conference, which
includes the Declaration and Programme of Action, will be issued
shortly.
Friends and colleagues, this is probably the last e-mail you
will receive from me as NGO Liaison Officer for the World Conference.
A new Anti-Discrimination Unit has been constituted to follow-up on
the Durban agenda, while I will go on to other work. You will be able
to reach me at the e-mail noted below for a little while, and when I
have new coordinates, I will send them. In the meantime, I want to
thank all of you who worked together with us to ensure that we got a
document with a strong anti-discrimination agenda that we can use to
begin seriously tackling the scourges of racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The role of NGOs
in the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of
Action will be critical and the Office will be looking to you to
assist in this vital work.
With best wishes to you all for the coming year.
Laurie Wiseberg
NGO Laision WCAR
Tel. (41 22) 917 9393
Fax. (41 22) 917 9050
E-mail: [email protected]
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For the text of the Declaration and Programme of Action in English,
please refer to:
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/racism/Durban.htm
Boris
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