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UN Human Rights Council 8th session
Item 9: General Debate
Tuesday, 17 June 2008

Joint statement on behalf of the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) and the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC)

IMADR, FORUM-ASIA and the ALRC welcome the report on the first substantive session of the Durban Review Conference’s Preparatory Committee, and the agreement by the Committee to hold the Durban Review Conference in Geneva from April 20 to 24, 2009.

We are also encouraged by the convening of the Latin American and Caribbean regional meeting currently being held in Brazilia, and plans to hold an African regional meeting in Nigeria in August. We are concerned however by the failure so far to agree a venue and date for the Asian Pacific and the European Regional Preparatory meetings. To date, none of the Member States from these two regions have offered to host the respective regional meetings, as called upon by General Assembly resolution 62/220. Regional meetings are an invaluable aspect of the preparatory process. They enable states from the same region to work together in reviewing and taking stock of the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA) in their respective countries and the region as a whole. Such meetings should be embraced as an opportunity to work constructively with regional partners in assessing ways to overcome difficulties encountered in implementing the DDPA and improve regional mechanisms to combat racism, in a supportive and mutually beneficial manner.

We therefore urge particularly Member States in the Asia Pacific region to demonstrate their commitment to implementation of the DDPA and Durban Review Conference, by offering to host the Asia Pacific regional meeting as soon as possible. Given the willingness of the UN ESCAP to make its facilities available for such a meeting, we encourage the Government of Thailand to reconsider its position in respect of hosting this event. We also encourage other states in the Asia Pacific region to consider their capacity to hold such a conference.

Regarding the Preparatory Committee itself, and the work of its Open-Ended Inter-sessional Inter-Governmental Working Group (ISIGWG), we appreciate the efforts to engage constructively and facilitate the timely and focussed drafting of the DRC outcome document, and understand the necessity to form a regionally composed group as ‘Friends of the Chair’ in this regard. However, we are concerned that submissions by NGOs to the Preparatory Committee have not yet been considered in this process. We urge the Chair of the Working Group as well as the Friends of the Chair to include the voices of victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in their deliberations.

Given that the forthcoming meetings of the Friends of the Chair group will not be open to civil society participation, we recommend that the group and its Chairperson continue to ensure this process is transparent and accessible to civil society by

- Organising regular briefing and exchange sessions with NGOs parallel to the work of the Friends of the Chair, to receive feedback from civil society on the work in progress;

- Ensuring that information, working documents, and updates on work in progress are posted in a timely and efficient manner on the DRC extranet pages or through other means to allow NGOs, especially those not based in Geneva, to access the information before the respective meetings and to provide written feedback on the ongoing work;

- Sending regular progress updates through the Civil Society Unit listserv to facilitate information sharing and allow NGOs to engage constructively in the preparations.

Thank you, Mr. President.