Position Paper on the World Conference Against
Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and
Related Intolerance
Africa Action (Washington, DC)
PRESS RELEASE
August 22, 2001
Posted to the web August 22, 2001
Washington, DC
Support for WCAR and a Call to fight AIDS and Global Apartheid
Africa Action strongly supports the World Conference Against Racism,
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR)
and applauds the work of all who have participated constructively in
the preparatory processes from among UN agencies, Governments,
NGOs and activists worldwide. We note with particular appreciation
the work of the U.S. NGO Coordinating Committee, the International
Human Rights Law Group, National Coalition of Blacks for
Reparations in America (N'COBRA), the Lawyers Committee for Civil
Rights Under Law, and the African and African Descendants Caucus
(AADC).

Africa Action charges that the global AIDS pandemic must be seen as
a matter of international racism. The AIDS crisis ­ whose epicenter is
in Africa ­ is the harvest of an international system of global
apartheid,
where the consequences of racism, slavery and colonialism have, five
centuries on, impoverished the African continent and left it on its own
to combat the worst plague in human history. The World Conference
should recognize that the resolution of the global AIDS pandemic is
directly dependent upon the international fight against racism. It is
the
devaluation of black life that has enabled the western world to turn its
eyes away from this global health crisis. Of all of the struggles
against
racism that we will discuss in Durban, none has farther reaching
consequences for the immediate future of our common humanity.
Africa Action is addressing the WCAR on four principal areas.
(1) a declaration that the slave trade and enslavement of Africans
were crimes against humanity;
(2) the right to reparations for slavery, colonialism, apartheid and
continuing racism;
(3) the cancellation of African countries' external debts;
(4) financing for the Global Fund for AIDS and other infectious
diseases.
The first two points relate to the need to acknowledge history and to
accept that reparations must be paid. The latter two points address
immediate steps that can and must be taken at the level of
international public policy to save millions of African lives and to
reverse the severe impoverishment of African people that has resulted
from historical and contemporary international racism.
Together these points represent key elements of our vision of how to
invigorate the future: by acknowledging past injustice, establishing
appropriate remedies, and taking new concrete actions to address
the most pressing structural obstacles to Africans' and African
descendants' access to their basic human rights today, especially -- at
this critical juncture ­ the right to health (the right to life itself).
Crimes against humanity
The enslavement of Africans and the slave trade that sustained the
institutions of slavery were crimes against humanity. The enslavement
of Africans was ­ as the AADC has pointed out ­ "a unique tragedy in
the history of humanity which is unparalleled not only because of its
abhorrent barbarism but also in terms of its enormous magnitude, its
institutionalized nature, its transnational dimension, and especially
its
negation of the very essence of the human nature of Africans and
African descendants."
These crimes against humanity have shaped the life chances of
hundreds of millions of Africans and African descendants, and
established the foundations of inequality along the "color line" that
are
today manifest in a system of global apartheid characterized by
obscene disparities in wealth, power and access to basic human
rights, disparities that closely track race and place. Formal
acknowledgment of these crimes against humanity is a necessary and
salutary step in the process of repairing the damages caused by these
crimes.
Reparations for the slave trade, slavery, colonialism and
apartheid
Africa Action believes that actual reparations are more important than
apologies. We believe that reparations will be among the most
prominent issues at the World Conference. We welcome this and do
not believe that this will detract from coverage of other current
problems of intolerance throughout the world that also require
attention, including contemporary forms of slavery. Indeed the
challenge and opportunity at this World Conference is to connect
history to the present. This requires an acknowledgment of the
obligation of rich countries to support efforts to address the
consequences of five centuries of creating an international economic
system that benefits the few, mainly themselves. It also requires the
recognition that racism is still central to the functioning of this
global
system.
It is the systemic and long-term impoverishment of the victims of
racism, xenophobia and intolerance that should be the focus of this
World Conference. Africa Action supports the call for reparations and
associates itself with the Abuja Proclamation of 1993 sponsored by
the Organization of African Unity and its Reparations Commission; the
Declarations of Africans and African descendants at the WCAR
regional meetings in Dakar, Senegal and Vienna, Austria; the
Principles/Commitments on Race and Poverty drafted by the NGO
Roundtable at the WCAR's Regional Preparatory meeting for the
Americas; and the recent position paper of Human Rights Watch on
Reparations (which represents a welcome shift in their work towards
full inclusion of social and economic rights).
Africa Action believes that Africans and African descendants that are
disadvantaged today as groups should be compensated by the
governments responsible for the practices that inflicted such suffering
upon them and that have today resulted in structural inequalities and
abuses associated with the impoverishment of Africans and African
descendants. Compensation should provide resources adequate to
address these structural inequalities. Those who commit crimes
against humanity must make reparation and governments cannot
avoid responsibility because of the passage of time. The poverty and
inequities that characterize the struggles of Africans and African
descendant people today are consequences of deliberate acts that
have shaped the world.
Who Owes Whom? - Cancel Africa's External Debt
While the movement for reparations grows and gains more attention,
respect and response from culpable governments and other
institutions that benefitted from slavery, colonialism and apartheid;
and
while the machinery to manage reparations is being established, there
is an urgent need for immediate international action on two life or
death issues directly related to the legacy of international racism. The
first is the illegitimate, immoral and crippling foreign debt that
African
countries owe to the wealthy white countries and the international
institutions that represent their economic interests (i.e. the World
Bank
and the International Monetary Fund).
The 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa spend approximately $13.5
billion every year repaying debts to rich foreign creditors for past
loans
of questionable legitimacy. These debt repayments divert money
directly from basic human needs such as health care and education,
and undermine African governments' fight against the AIDS pandemic
and their efforts to promote sustainable development. The All-Africa
Conference of Churches has called Africa's massive foreign debt
burden "a new form of slavery, as vicious as the slave trade".
Africa Action calls for the cancellation of Africa's foreign debt, which
we consider in large part to be illegitimate, based on its origins and
consequences. We consider the present and past attempts to deal
with the debt crisis to be absolutely insufficient, and we oppose the
existing debt relief framework, developed and controlled by creditors
and designed to function only in their interests. Africa Action opposes
conditionalities imposed by Northern creditors which perpetuate a
global economic system where Africa remains economically controlled
and exploited by the developed world. We believe that the costs of
debt cancellation should be borne by the creditor nations and the
International Financial Institutions, and moreover, we believe that the
global North owes Africa an historical debt for centuries of exploiting
the continent's human and natural resources. Debt cancellation is a
step that should be taken immediately, as partial downpayment on
reparations.
Fight the "Black Death" - Finance the UN Global Fund for AIDS
AIDS has become the black plague. Its epicenter is Africa, the region
with the next highest infection rate is the Caribbean, and in the U.S.
(the region ranked third) HIV/AIDS infection rates are increasing
mainly among people of color. So while AIDS is a global threat that
knows no borders and does not discriminate by race, at present it is
mainly killing black people. And that is the cruel truth about why the
western world has failed to respond with dispatch. The pandemic
starkly reveals the fault lines of deep inequality in the world order.
The slave system, and the colonial era that followed, helped entrench
both racial stereotypes and disparities in wealth, largely determining
the starting points for individuals and countries in today's globalizing
world. Among the most sensitive indicators of that inequality is health.
The AIDS pandemic in Africa provides a dramatic reminder. It is not
only that global inequality is increasing. The distribution of the
suffering, as in the past five centuries, is clearly linked to both
place
and race. According to the latest World Health Report, released in
June 2000, forty-four of the fifty-two countries with life expectancies
less than 50 years are in Africa.
The rich countries' failure to act now is linked to the fact that the
majority of those affected are poor, black and female. The response to
the global AIDS pandemic will show whether common humanity will
prevail over corporate greed. It will also show whether the world is
ready to confront centuries of global injustice. The rich and white
world
­ through their governments ­ have thus far refused to finance the war
against this threat to humanity because its victims are mainly black.
The Global Fund for AIDS that the United Nations is attempting to
development as a vehicle to deliver the resources needed to defeat
AIDS has received a mere pittance of its already conservatively
estimated budget of $10 billion. U.S. pledges to the Global Health
Fund fall far short of the $3 billion that would be an appropriate U.S.
share of the $10 billion a year needed. And the U.S. administration
has not repudiated the remarks by the US Agency for International
Development (USAID) Administrator, Andrew Natsios, who tried to
justify denying AIDS treatment to Africans because, he stated, "they
can't tell time."
Conclusion
Africa Action believes it is critical to recognize that the current
international political economy very closely resembles a form of global
apartheid, that African rights are the most egregiously violated under
this system, and that the United States is the single most powerful
actor within this system and the custodian of its ways.
Global apartheid, stated briefly, is an system of international white
minority rule. Race determines access to basic human rights; wealth
and power are accumulated and structured by race and place;
structural racism is found in global economic processes, political
institutions and cultural assumptions; and international double
standards are practiced that assume inferior rights to be appropriate
for certain "others," defined by origin, race, gender, or geography.
Global apartheid is more than a metaphor. It is a more accurate
moniker for the corporate globalization that is now rightfully protested
at every international meeting. Global apartheid has evolved as a
consequence of an international economic system built upon the slave
trade, slavery and colonialism, and upon centuries of racism and racial
discrimination. Global apartheid has national and local consequences
throughout the world. But none is as devastating as the global AIDS
pandemic.
Durban, South Africa is an appropriate setting for this ­ the third ­
World Conference Against Racism. The venue should inspire us to
build upon one of the greatest international successes against racism
at the end of the 20th century, the defeat of apartheid in South Africa.
Last year, Durban hosted the 13th international conference on AIDS
(the first ever in Africa). Durban 2000 (on AIDS) and Durban 2001 (on
racism) are connected by more than geographical coincidence. If the
material damages from past injustice were only felt by past
generations, the argument over apologies and reparations might be
academic. But in fact the racial order derived from the interlocked
sequence of slavery, the slave trade, colonialism and apartheid still
profoundly affects all aspects of life, including survival itself, in
South
Africa, the U.S., and globally.
Participation in the WCAR
Every country in the world should participate in the WCAR at the
highest possible level, as befits a world summit on an issue as serious
and important as this. The United States in particular should
participate at the highest level and provide generous financial support
because it is historically the greatest beneficiary of the crimes
justified
by racism and the world's richest country as a result. The United
States' threats to boycott the WCAR represent the height of arrogance
and a callous dismissal of one of the greatest problems facing the
U.S. and the world today. The apparent decision to send a low-level
official instead of Secretary of State Colin Powell puts in question the
symbolism often attributed to Powell's being the first African American
to hold that post. This decision is testimony to the racism that
continues to shape U.S. foreign policy.
Africa Action will participate actively in the NGO forum of the WCAR
and will be well represented by Staff and Board Members throughout.
While we have sought to highlight what we consider to be strategic
priorities for the WCAR, Africa Action also supports the totality of the
work of the Conference. We consider the WCAR to be an
unprecedented opportunity to strengthen the growing international
movement against global apartheid and for global justice.


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