UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Thursday adopted a Declaration aimed at mobilizing support to end all forms of racial discrimination and intolerance, and to place victims at the centre of measures to promote equal opportunity, openness and inclusion.
The General Assembly capped its High-level Meeting to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action by approving a consensus text containing the Political Declaration titled "United against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance".
Speaking before the adoption of the declaration, Pakistan's delegate Munawwar Saeed Bhatti told the 193-member Assembly that Pakistan was proud to be part of the process that led to the adoption of the Declaration and supports its full and effective implementation.
The Declaration reaffirmed the outcomes of the 2001 World Conference against Racism, held in Durban, South Africa, and the Geneva Review meeting held in 2009.
The Declaration adopted Thursday welcomed the progress achieved in many parts of the world in the fight against racism and racial discrimination since 2001, but acknowledged that, in spite of the international community's concerted efforts, they still existed, including in new manifestations, and countless human beings continue to the present day to be victims of discrimination and related intolerance.
Further, it reaffirmed that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance constitute a negation of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Declaration reaffirmed equality and non-discrimination as fundamental principles of international law. "As such, Member States resolve to pursue our common goal of ensuring the effective enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, especially for victims of racism.
In his speech, the Pakistani delegate said his government had made significant efforts through affirmative action and administrative measures to ensure equality of opportunity and empowerment of all citizens, especially women and minorities.
Pakistan, he said, respects diversity and endeavors to promote it. In recent times, Bhatti said, politicization of immigration, rigid hierarchical social structures, unequal power and economic relations, religious intolerance and the situations of foreign occupation continued to sustain the systematic forms of discrimination.
"Ideological and political resistance to multiculturalism is one of the root causes of the resurgence of racist and xenophobic tendencies," he said.
"One of the most insidious forms of contemporary racism is negative religious profiling and stereotyping, which leads to incitement to hatred, violence and discrimination; in particular against Islam and Muslims. No religion or faith should be equated with violence or terrorism. Recent instances of violence in different parts of the world have shown that terrorism has no faith," Bhatti added.
"Freedom of Expression, sacrosanct as it may be, must not be exploited to defame any religion and to incite thereby violence against its followers. On the contrary, in our common struggle against terrorism and discrimination, there is an urgent need for dialogue and understanding among followers of different religious beliefs. Tendency on part of some countries to use international concerns against terrorism for advancing their own political agendas must be curbed."
Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011
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