Global Church Organizations Welcome Durban II Outcome, With Some Regrets

No Mention of "Hundreds of Millions" Affected by Caste-Based Discrimination

Two global church organization shave congratulated the United Nations Durban Review Conference against racism on the adoption of its outcome document, but regret that the latter makes no mention of the plight of hundreds of millions of people affected by caste-based discrimination.

In a joint oral intervention at the conference today in Geneva, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and World Council of Churches(WCC) welcomed the reaffirmation of the 2001 Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, as well as the international community’s commitment to overcome all forms of racism "in all parts of the world, including those 'under foreign occupation.'" However, the LWF and WCC stated their regret that the conference had "failed to acknowledge the suffering of the more than 200million people discriminated against on the basis of work and descent."

Formerly known as untouchables, the Dalits are"invisible" in the 21 April outcome document, despite their situation falling squarely under the definition of racial discrimination by UN standards. In March, both organizations convened a conference in Bangkok,Thailand, at which representatives of churches and church-related organizations from around the world expressed their solidarity with the Dalit struggle for justice. The LWF/WCC intervention at the UN conference today affirmed,"Racism is a sin because it destroys the very source of humanity- the image of God in humankind.

Racism desecrates God's likeness in every person." Both organizations said they were satisfied that anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, along with a number of other groups and situations, had been explicitly addressed in the outcome document. But they expressed regret that "controversies over one single situation have so consumed the attention and energy of the Durban process, from 2001 until now."

They welcomed the proposal made by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to create an "observatory on discrimination," which may help throw further light on the situation of the millions of victims of untouchable practices. There are some 260 million Dalits worldwide, 200 million of them in India.

Another welcomed development is the exclusion of the concept of"defamation of religions" from the conference outcome document. By not allowing the concept to "inappropriately intrude into [the document's] human rights framework," the document instead"properly addresses itself to the 'stigmatization of persons based on their religion or belief’," stated the LWF and WCC.