Subject: WCAR Declaration
Date:9/6/01
WCAR NGO Declaration
This
document is the outcome of an international process before and during the NGO
Forum of the WCAR held in Durban, South Africa 28 August – 1 September 2001.
The
Declaration and the Programme of Action is based on the understanding that it
reflects the regional processes and that the voices of the victims of racism,
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance must be heard.
03
September 2001
WCAR NGO FORUM DECLARATION
DECLARATION OF THE NGO FORUM
79.
Arabs as a Semitic people have also suffered from alternative forms of anti
semitism, manifesting itself as anti Arab discrimination and for those Arabs who
are Muslim, also as Islamophobia.
COLONIALISM
AND FOREIGN OCCUPATION
95. Colonialism represents one of the most serious violations of national sovereignty of states and breach of international law, and in almost all colonial territories serious crimes against humanity were committed by colonial powers.
96. Foreign
occupation creates an environment in which the occupied people are exposed to a
wide range of systemic and gross violations of human rights and freedoms,
including dispossession, displacement and denial of their right to self
determination and women of occupied territories are subjected to rape, sexual
slavery, forced pregnancy and other forms of violence against women.
97. Acknowledging that a foreign occupation which imposes an alien domination and subjugation with the denial of territorial integrity amounts to colonialism (according to the principles of the ‘Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples’ of the UN General Assembly 1960) and denies the fundamental rights of self determination, independence and freedom of the people under occupation. It also creates an environment in which the occupied people are exposed to a wide range of systematic and gross violations of human rights and freedom. We extend our solidarity to the struggles for self – determination for people of Palestine, West Sumatra, Aceh-Sumatra, Bougainville, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, North Cyprus, and other states and indigenous communities including the Kurdish people, the indigenous people in the north east of India and in the north east of Sri Lanka, in Tibet, Kashmir, Bhutan, Mindanao and the non independent countries of the Caribbean, like Puerto Rico and recognize the situation of other people living under foreign occupation in different parts of the world.
98. Recognizing further that the Palestinian people are one such people currently enduring a colonialist, discriminatory military occupation that violates their fundamental human right of self-determination including the illegal transfer of Israeli citizens into the occupied territories and establishment of a permanent illegal Israeli infrastructure; and other racist methods amounting to Israel’s brand of apartheid and other racist crimes against humanity. Recognizing therefore that the Palestinian people have the clear right under international law to resist such occupation by any means provided under international law until they achieve their fundamental human right to self-determination and end the Israeli racist system including its own brand of apartheid.
99. Recognizing further that a basic “root cause” of Israel’s on going and systematic human rights violations, including its grave breaches of the fourth Geneva convention 1949 (i.e. war crimes), acts of genocide and practices of ethnic cleansing is a racist system, which is Israel’s brand of apartheid. One aspect of this Israeli racist system has been a continued refusal to allow the Palestinian refugees to exercise their right as guaranteed by international law to return to their homes of origin. Related to the right of return, the Palestinian refugees also have a clear right under international law to receive restitution of their properties and full compensation. Furthermore, international law provides that those Palestinian refugees choosing not to return are entitled to receive full compensation for all their losses. Israel’s refusal to grant Palestinian refugees their right of return and other gross human rights and humanitarian law violations has destabilized the entire region and has impacted on world peace and security.
100. We
are appalled at the situation of thirty million Kurdish people scattered in
several countries including Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria, who are oppressively
prevented from exercising their national legitimate rights of self
determination. We deplore the policies of genocide and practices of ethnic
cleansing against the Kurds. We strongly condemn all forms of
discrimination against the Kurds, such as confiscation of their lands,
deportation and displacement of population, destruction of their culture, denial
of their civil rights as well as their cultural and political rights.
101. We
recognise the situation of 6 million Tibetan people suffering under 50 years of
the occupation of their country who continue to suffer institutionalized forms
of racial discrimination under the Chinese occupation, and condemn actions of
the Chinese government that continues to exploit, explore and extract the rich
minerals resources of Tibet, causing irreversible damage to the fragile
eco-system on the Tibetan plateau.
102. We note with great concern the implementation of government policies of population transfer of millions of Chinese settlers into Tibet and the carrying out of coercive birth control practices against Tibetan women, which contributes to heighten discrimination against Tibetan people.
103. The
monocultural and hegemonic practices of the Chinese government, through the
school system and through other state institutions has caused forced integration
and assimilation and deprived the Tibetan people of their human rights.
PALESTINIANS
AND PALESTINE
160. Appalled by the on-going colonial military Israeli occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (the West Bank including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip), we declare and call for an immediate end to the Israeli systematic perpetration of racist crimes including war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing (as defined in the Statute of the International Criminal Court), including uprooting by military attack, and the imposition of any and all restrictions and measures on the population to make life so difficult that the only option is to leave the area, and state terrorism against the Palestinian people, recognizing that all of these methods are designed to ensure the continuation of an exclusively Jewish state with a Jewish majority and the expansion of its borders to gain more land, driving out the indigenous Palestinian population.
161.
We declare that this alien domination and subjugation with the denial of
territorial integrity amounts to colonialism, which denies the fundamental
rights of self-determination, independence and freedom of Palestinians.
Condemn this process of settler colonialism through the on-going collective
punishments, expropriation and destruction of Palestinian lands, homes,
property, agricultural land and crops; the establishment of illegal Israeli
settlements, the mass transfer of Israeli Jewish populations to the illegally
expropriated Palestinian land and the development of a permanent and illegal
Israeli infrastructure, including by-pass roads.
162. We declare Israel as a racist, apartheid state in which Israels brand of apartheid as a crime against humanity has been characterized by separation and segregation, dispossession, restricted land access, denationalization, ¨bantustanization¨ and inhumane acts.
163.
Appalled by the inhumane acts perpetrated in the maintenance of this new form of
apartheid regime through the Israeli state war on civilians including military
attacks, torture, arbitrary arrests and detention, the imposition of severe
restrictions on movement (curfews, imprisonment and besiegement of towns and
villages), and systematic collective punishment, including economic
strangulation and deliberate impoverishment, denial of the right to food and
water, the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to housing, the
right to education and the right to work.
164.
We recognize that targeted victims of Israel´s brand of apartheid and ethnic
cleansing methods have been in particular children, women and refugees and
condemn the disproportionate numbers of children and women killed and injured in
military shooting and bombing attacks. Recognize the right of return of refugees
and internally displaced people to their homes of origin, restitution of
properties, and compensation for damages, losses and other crimes committed
against them, as guaranteed in international law.
165.
Appalled by the discrimination against the Palestinians inside Israel which
include: The imposition of discriminatory laws, including the discriminatory
laws of return and citizenship, which emphasize the ethnicity of the Israeli
state as a Jewish state; the granting of benefits or privileges solely to the
Jewish Israeli citizens; the imposition of restrictions on the civil and
political rights of Palestinians because of their national belonging or because
they do not belong to the majority ethnic group; The negation of the right of
Palestinians to equal access to resources of the State and civil equality,
including affirmative action policies, which recognize the historical
discrimination against Palestinians inside Israel.
NGO
FORUM PROGRAMME OF ACTION
ANTISEMITISM
191. Ensure that all members of civil society clearly and publicly condemn all forms of antisemitism; recognize the responsibility of public officials to publicly disavow hate mongers, hate speech, and other forms of expression which spread, incite, promote or justify acts of antisemitism; ensure that appropriate anti-discrimination legislation exists and is adequately implemented to ensure that action is taken against individuals and institutions responsible for discrimination and criminal acts against Jews, and the denigration of Jews; promote concrete actions which will counteract and prevent the increase of antisemitic incidents and hostile action against Jews as well as the rise of radical and violent movements which foster racist ideologies and discriminatory practices against the Jewish community; promote Holocaust remembrance, notably through education and the organization of cultural or media events, including the promotion of national days of Holocaust remembrance.
192. Include
the subject of antisemitism in anti-racist education for students and teachers,
and in all teaching materials, particularly in history and social science books;
introduce measures to eliminate antisemitic propaganda, and antisemitic
references in school curricula, textbooks and the media; promote public
awareness and tolerance through non-formal education and the media; give Jewish
youth an opportunity to take an active role in educating the world about the
evil that necessarily results from Jew hatred; promote a voluntary internet code
of conduct and other voluntary measures against the purveying of sites that
promote racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance;
encourage the United Nations within the context of the UN Decade of Human Rights
Education, to establish a month each year dedicated to promoting responsible use
of the internet with a particular focus on the internet.
PALESTINIANS AND PALESTINE
417. Call for the immediate enforcement of international humanitarian law, specifically the Fourth Geneva Convention 1949, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories through the adoption of all measures to ensure its enforcement including all measures employed against the South African Apartheid regime. Call for the immediate convening of the High Contracting Parties to implement this process in fulfillment of their obligation to ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances. Also call for the immediate deployment of an independent, effective international protection force for Palestinian civilians and the dismantlement of the illegal Jewish Israeli colonies (settlements) and a complete withdrawal of the colonial military occupation.
418. Call upon the United Nations to ensure the implementation of the various UN resolutions on the Occupied Palestinian Territories including the withdrawal of the Israeli colonial military occupation (of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Jerusalem), the right of return for refugees, and for the protection for refugees of the UN High Commission for Refugees until such time as they may be able to exercise their right to return and in accordance with UN resolution 194. Also call for the reinstitution of UN resolution 3379 determining the practices of Zionism as racist practices which propagate the racial domination of one group over another through the implementation of all measures designed to drive out other indigenous groups, including through colonial expansionism in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, including Jerusalem), and through the application of discriminatory laws of return and citizenship, to obliterate their national identity and to maintain the exclusive nature of the State of Israel as a Jewish state to the exclusion of all other groups. Also call for the repeal of all discriminatory laws within the state of Israel, including those of return and citizenship, which are part of the institutionalized racism and Apartheid regime in Israel.
419.
Call for the establishment of a war crimes tribunal to investigate and bring to
justice those who may be guilty of war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic
cleansing and the crime of Apartheid which amount to crimes against humanity
that have been or continue to be perpetrated in Israel and the Occupied
Palestinian Territories.
420. Call for an increased awareness of the root causes of the Israel’s belligerent occupation and systematic human rights violations as a racist, apartheid system, through relevant UN agencies working closely with international civil society networks to widely disseminate information including educational packs for schools and universities, films and publications.
421. Call for the establishment of a UN Special Committee on Apartheid and Other Racist Crimes Against Humanity perpetrated by the Israeli Apartheid regime to monitor and to report Apartheid and other racist crimes, and to recommend the implementation of measures to combat Apartheid and other racist crimes.
422. Call
for the establishment of programmes and institutions to combat the racist media
distortion, stereotyping and propaganda, including the demonizing and
dehumanizing of Palestinians as all being violent and terrorists, and
undeserving of human rights protections. Call for the correction of
misleading information surrounding their status as indigenous peoples, the
history of the violations perpetrated against them, and the on-going distortion
of the facts and nature of the peace negotiations.
423. Call for the launch of an international anti Israeli Apartheid movement as implemented against South African Apartheid through a global solidarity campaign network of international civil society, UN bodies and agencies, business communities and to end the conspiracy of silence among states, particularly the European Union and the United States.
424. Call upon the international community to impose a policy of complete and total isolation of Israel as an apartheid state as in the case of South Africa which means the imposition of mandatory and comprehensive sanctions and embargoes, the full cessation of all links (diplomatic, economic, social, aid, military cooperation and training) between all states and Israel. Call upon the Government of South Africa to take the lead in this policy of isolation, bearing in mind its own historical success in countering the undermining policy of “constructive engagement” with its own past Apartheid regime.
425.
Condemnation of those states who are supporting, aiding and abetting the Israeli
Apartheid state and its perpetration of racist crimes against humanity including
ethnic cleansing, acts of genocide.
Palestine Affairs Council