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SANTIAGO +5
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Chile:

Latin American Caucus Santiago +5 Chile and America
to five years of the Regional Conference Against Racism

By Eugenia Calquin, Mapuche signaller

“Racism, still persists in America, in spite of the efforts made by the States, and continues being one of the causes of the suffering, serious disadvantage and violations to the human rights, those that must be fought at all costs available like subjects of the Maxima priority” (Extract of the Declaration and Plan of Action of Santiago, 2000)

This instance was preparatory of III the World-wide Conference in these matters celebrated in Durban- South Africa (to see annexed 1), and of her important commitments of the Latin American States emanated, that today, five years later, are precise to evaluate.

The Conference of Santiago, also is recognized, because there the foundations of the “Year were laid the the International of Mobilization against Racism, the racial Discrimination, the Xenophobia and connected forms of Intolerancia” with the purpose of giving to this fight the political impulse that needed; nevertheless, the attack to the Twin Towers in New York the 11 of September of 2001, would condition later, the international agenda, overturning the attention of the world to the combat against the terrorism. Even so, the commitments were subscribed.

The 35 Governments who that year - the 2000 - were congregated in Santiago, were contributor of which many create a “continental landmark”, since, for the first time in the history of America, the existence of a “institutionalized discrimination” were recognized the one that by its main victims still has the Indigenous Towns, Afro descending and Migrantes. “The negation of racism only contributes to its perpetuación” declared the assistants. Committing itself to repair the caused damages and to redouble its efforts to eradicate the discrimination, they recognized that “continental history has not been of inclusion and respect for all the settlers, but characterized by the racism, the racial discrimination, the xenophobia and different forms from intolerancia, which persist although in all the national constitutions the right of all the towns exists to live in free societies of those flagella”.

That Conference, concluded that “the identity of the Américas cannot dissociate of its multiracial, pluriétnico, multicultural character, multilinguistíco and pluralista; diversity that constitutes a contribution to the human coexistence and the construction of cultures of mutual respect and democratic political systems”, this way the assistants approved in consensus a Declaration and Plan of Action that would later present/display months before III the World-wide Conference against Racism, in Durban, of this form, the discussions in Santiago, became the contribution of the American Region to the analysis of racism and the diverse proposals of solutions to eliminate it.

The Plan of Action of Santiago, a document of 51 pages, indicates, among other things, that “the discrimination persists and continues being violation cause the human rights”, of its conclusions are given off political locations to the democracy and rights, the legal responsibility that fits to him to the States, the administration of justice and the repair, besides to approach the particularitities of descending the Indigenous Towns, vulnerable Afro, Migrantes and other groups victims of agravated or multiple discrimination.

Latin American Caucus Santiago +5: Moment For evaluating (in) the Fulfillment

To five years of the Conference in Santiago, the term is fulfilled so that the countries of America are summoned to evaluate, to reflect and to project the Plans of Action that each one to carried out, is why II the Regional Conference against Racism, takes the name of “Latin American Caucus Santiago + 5”.

All the Region sees this instance like the opportunity which the States will have so much as the civil society of the Region, to report its advance or backward movements in the matter of discrimination. The appointment for it will take place in Brazil, in January of 2006 and given his relevance, it is that a Pre- will be made in Santiago of Chile Conference in June of this year.

The importance of this Conference has been understood by diverse referring at continental level, is as well as for example, the Government of Uruguay through his Vice-minister of Outer Relations, the 15 of March of 2005, during 61° session of the Commission of Human rights of the UN, declared that “At regional level, the new Government of Uruguay encourages the accomplishment of a Regional Conference Santiago +5, that comes to evaluate the degree of application of the important commitments assumed in 2000 in our region and that can be laying the the foundations for the preparation of one fourth World-wide Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and all the forms of Discrimination, that can reunite, in the future, to the international community around a n ueva table of negotiations, where undressed from political considerations, effective measures can arise to fight to the discrimination under all their forms”.

Also, Directive Mesa of the Regional Conference on the Woman of Latin America and the Caribbean, indicated that “We propose Santiago+5 to evaluate to the States as far as the public policies”. And the reunited descending Afro organizations in July of 2004 in Quito-Ecuador, indicated that “We supported decidedly and as well we will participate in the preparation and promotion of Encuentro Continental Santiago +5, where will request accounts to him to the States on the fulfillment of the Plans of Action emanated of III the World-wide Conference Against Racism the Racial Discrimination, the Xenophobia and other connected forms of intolerancia, as well as the Declaration and Plan of Action of Santiago”.

Also, Clare K. Roberts, in charge of recently created Special Relatoría for the descending Rights of the Afro and against the Racial Discrimination of the Inter-American Commission of Human rights, indicates that “it is necessary that the States fulfill the commitments assumed in instruments such as the Programs and Planes of Action coming from the Conferences Preparatory and World-wide against the Racial Discrimination, Racism, the Xenophobia and Connected Forms of Intolerancia, happened in Durban and Chile, respectively”

By all the previous one, it is not difficult to conclude that one of the points most important to evaluate in the next months will be the fulfillment (or not) on the part of the States of the elaboration of its National Plans of Action against Racism, following the mandates of the Regional Conference of Santiago, 2000 and of the World-wide Conference of Durban, 2001.

The Region is prepared towards II the Regional Conference against Racism:

In August of 2004 and by the necessity to monitorear the agreements of the Declaration and Plan of Action of the Regional Conference of the 2000, the “Committee was created in Montevideo Uruguay Initiatives Santiago + 5”; This committee, that in addition is the person in charge of the call of the Conference in Brazil and its Pre- Conference in Santiago, will be integrated by: the Strategic Alliance of Afro descending and the organizations of the Afro World of Uruguay, the Foundation Ideas of Chile, Hum an Rights Internet of Canada, Forum of Citizen Diplomacy of Latin America and the Caribbean of Argentina and the Inter-American Institute of Human rights of Costa Rica.

Also in Montevideo, but a month later, a press note exclaimed that “From Uruguay, the towns of America initiated the route towards Santiago + 5”, this to the light of the “South American Consultation of State and Multilateral Organisms for Policies of Promotion of the Racial Fairness”, an instance that is considered like the first passage in the way to implement a platform in the agreements of Santiago and Durban, in fact, its call was based on the point number of the 188 Declaration and Plan of Action of Durban (1).

In February of this year, the Inter-American Commission of Human rights of the O.A.S. (Organization of American States), created the Special Relatoría for the descending Rights of the Afro and against the Racial Discrimination, that it will have by objective: “to generate conscience of having State to respect the rights of the afrodescendientes and the elimination of all the forms of racial discrimination; to analyze the challenges that at the moment face the countries of the region in this matter, to formulate recommendations to surpass the obstacles, and to identify and to share the good practices in the region; in addition d and to as much observe and to offer any technical attendance that is required by the States members in the implementation of the recommendations in the internal scope, in the right as actually”

In Guatemala, in as much, an important legal precedent in Latin America seated, when the 5 of April of this year, the Courts of Justice condemned by racial discrimination to five people who attacked with racist insults to the Nobel prize of La Paz, Rigoberta Menchú.

In Brazil a remarkable advance is experienced creating in March of 2003 the Special Secretariat of the Promotion by the Racial equality SEPPIR, organization that today carries out its “Brazil Plan without Racism”.

Within the framework of the preparation of II the Regional Conference of the Américas, that the next year will be made in Brazil, the Minister of this portfolio, Matilde Ribeiro, visited Chile to give account of her management, emphasizing that for the first time descending a Afro woman assumed a roll of that spread in the political-governmental sphere of her country; in a meeting with representatives of descending and migrantes indigenous organizations, afro, indicated that in spite of being a leader of trajectory in its country, nowadays: “I know clearly my roll of Government, although I do not let have serious internal contradictions. But this it was a process negotiated in 10 years of fight of the Black Movement, obtaining to alliances with workers and farmers, the Movement without Earth and ind ígenas; nowadays as much the SEPPIR, as this Plan lives a process on legitimation”.

And Chile?

The country that Regional Conference of the Américas against Racism, the Racial Discrimination, the Xenophobia and connected forms of Intolerancia acted like host of the I, to 5 years of its accomplishment except for a “Plan by the Equality and the nonDiscrimination”, directed to officials government during the 2004, whom much does not say (to see annexed 2 “To know More”. Section “Information”) and a project of Law on Discrimination entered just the 22 of March of 2005 the House of Representatives and urgency, more than advances of which to be proud, registers enormous backward movements.

The constitution of the Chile Chapter of this Latin American Caucus, was made by initiative of the Foundation Ideas, in August of 2004, a call to diverse descending Indigenous organizations, Afro, Migrantes and of other groups discrimination victims; Nevertheless, until now, its work has been only centered in the elaboration of proposals for the National Plan of Action against Racism, that is to say, fulfilling the task that until the Chilean Government has not done now; besides to continue being crossed by an approach emphasis in the diffuse aspects of tolerance and weak treatment of the hardest aspects of racism and the discrimination in Chile. This way a worrisome negligence of the bottom of “Santiago + 5” is noticed, that, since we have indicated, is not another one if not it evaluation of the fulfillment on the part of the State of their obligations and commitments subscribed in the 2000.

Pre-Conference, that will be made in Santiago of Chile, in next June, is an official activity of the States of America, reason for which, the Chilean Government, that host acts like country, it has delegated the organization of this meeting to the Ministry of Planificación (MIDEPLAN). As it indicates the document Report of the State of Management referred Santiago + 5 ", elaborated by the Foundation Ideas, “the Pre- Conference it must be transformed into an important instance of dialog, evaluation and projection of the different actions from the American countries”. As much indigenous Towns, as afro- descending, wait for n that thus is.

The Indigenous Towns

In the context of the Conference against Racism in Santiago and Durban the Indigenous Towns of America, also gave in the World-wide Conference and particularly the Regional Conference in Santiago, a significant step in recognition terms.

In both Conferences, the Governments accepted for the first time, although with some reserves, that the natives are not populations, but Towns (2).

As it indicates to an article written by Ana Elena Obando, of the Inter-American Agreement of Women Activists by the Human rights, titleholder “the Conference against Racism in the new world order after the 11 of September”, one of the controverted subjects of the Conference of Durban, said relation with the rights of the Indigenous Towns to the self-determination, sovereignty, territorial integrity, earth and resources.

The point number 93 of the Plan of Action of the Regional Conference of the Américas, insists to the States to officially recognize “the identity and the rights of the indigenous towns, adopting concertadamente with them, administrative, legislative and judicial the measures necessary to promote, to protect and to guarantee the fundamental exercise of its rights and liberties”. The previous thing, is not only applicable to the social and cultural scope, but that also to the economic and enterprise activities and the well-being of these, as well as to the “benefit of the benefits of a sustainable development, respecting totally the distinguishing characteristics and their own initiatives” (to see point 95 of the Declaration).

Also, this Plan of Action makes a call to the States for “the quick conclusion of the negotiations of the Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Towns that is discussed in this group of the Commission of Human rights in the UN” in addition to the importance of a quick ratification of international instruments, in special of Convention 169 on Indigenous Towns of the Organization the International of the Work, OIT.

A note written by Kyra Núñez, call “American common Platform against racism”, indicates that the Conference in Santiago obtained that “racism, the racial discrimination, the xenophobia and the intolerancia are considered like crime, that the people in charge of those crimes are punished according to the law, and that the victims obtain right to the judicial resource and the repair”.

Although nonattributable exclusively to the previous thing, one recent sentence by racial discrimination, first in Guatemala, can give certain lights us in relation to this subject; one is five followers of General Jose Ríos Montt, the condemned this 5 of April of 2005, to 3 years and 2 months of exchangeable prison, to attack with racist insults to the Nobel prize of La Paz, Rigoberta Menchú. According to it declared, his lawyer, Benito Morales, “When impelling this judgment we did not try that the defendant went away years to the jail, but to seat a legal precedent and social so that the attitudes of the racist people begin to change”, a precedent that by the way, also feels to the Latin rest of America a.

Notes:

|1| Paragraph 188 of the Plan of Action of Durban: “It urges to the States to that they support the regional activities of the organs or centers that fight racism, the racial discrimination, the xenophobia and the connected forms of intolerancia when they exist in his region, and recommends the creation of such organs or centers there where they do not exist. Those organs or centers can carry out, among others, the following activities: to evaluate and to follow the situation of racism, the racial discrimination, the xenophobia and the connected forms of intolerancia and the groups who are victims of these vulnerable practices or to them; to identify the tendencies, questions and problems; to collect, to spread and to interchange relative data, among other things, to the results of the regional conferences and the World-wide Conference and of creating networks with that aim; to present examples good practices; to organize sensibilización campaigns; to elaborate proposals, solutions and preventive measures, when he is possible and originating, by means of a joint effort in coordination with the United Nations, the regional organizations and the States, as well as with the national institutions of human rights”

|2| The article “the Conference against Racism in the new world order after the 11 of September”, written by Ana Elena Obando, of the Inter-American Agreement of Women Activists by the Human rights of Costa Rica, indicates that “Other controverted subjects were related to the rights of the indigenous towns to the self-determination, sovereignty, territorial integrity and earth and resources. Although caucus indigenous pressed with force so that a page note erased on foot in which it affirmed that the term “indigenous towns” cannot consider a term with legal implications on the rights that the international law stipulates, (what indicates that the right from the towns to indigenous the rupos self-determination is not applied to the g), the Government of Canada and their allies obtained that the paragraph stayed”

In direct relation with the previous thing, the Special Relator of the Commission of Human rights of the Nations United on the fundamental human rights and liberties of the natives, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, declared in the “regional Seminary of experts for Latin America and the Caribbean on the fulfillment of the Program of Action adopted in Durban: interchange of ideas for a future action”, that “the discussion on the free determination of the Indigenous Towns, in Durban, has stagnated in the discord that exists about the use of concepts like town”.

ANNEXED 1

The World-wide Conference of Durban:

The World-wide Conference against Racism, the Racial Discrimination, the Xenophobia and connected forms of Intolerancia, made between the 31 of August and the 8 of September of 2001 in Durban- South Africa, was third that organized United Nations. First of them, it was framed within the fight by the recognition of the civil rights and political in the United States and second it had as central axis the fight against the Aparthaid in South Africa.

Delegates worldwide, in representation of Governments, Social ONG and Movements, had the possibility “of facing” in this Conference. A note written by the Web site Choike.org, indicates that several controverted points went coming to the light, among them, the conflict in the middle East, the indigenous rights and holocausto “when culminating the encounter (of which the delegations of Israel and the United States made abandonment), signed a declaration in which it is let traslucir the general preoccupation on the human diversity, its wealth, its conflicts and possible solutions”

The main subjects that were discussed were: the slavery and traffic of slaves, Migrantes and refugees, the impact of the multiple forms of discrimination against the women, Discrimination based on the chaste ones, indigenous Towns and the Crease of the U.S.A. and Israel.

In July of 2002 it was made in Mexico the “Seminary of Experts of the Region of Latin America and the Caribbean on the fulfillment of the Program of Action Adopted by the World-wide Conference against Racism: Interchange of ideas for a future Action”, with the purpose of reviewing and discussing the fulfillment in the agreements of Durban, to reflect on the different forms in which the Governments, in collaboration with other actors, can integrate these dispositions in their legislative bodies (to see Annexed Nº 2 “To know More”: Information)

Annexed 2

In order to know more:

To see the original note