UN Meet Against Racism: Timely & Historic

By Gyan Rai

FOR nine momentous days, the world’s media attention was very much focused on the United Nations-organised Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. The third such a conference against racism held so far in the world, this time round, it was organised by Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The on-going debates, widely covered by the global, regional and national media—including the Nepalese press—rivetted the people’s attention in that the conference was more or less dominated by two contentious issues: the legacy of slavery and the Middle East. So acrimonious were the debates over these two issues, especially the Middle East, that two nations, the United States and Israel, withdrew their delegates mid-way through the meet. Similarly, others, like the EU (European Union) nations, also threatened to withdraw their delegates en mass if the Arab nations persisted in equating Zionism—that led to the creation of Israel—with racism. Likewise, while some countries, notably from Africa, wanted a strongly worded declaration on slavery as well as reparations for the "crimes" committed by some nations for abetting slave trade, others were not in favour of including reparations in the final declaration.

The final declaration, having passed through much compromises, naturally drew flacks from almost all the contending sides. Nevertheless, while the UN Chief stated that "to have left Durban without an agreement would have given comfort to the worst elements in every society", Mary Robinson, the head of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on the other hand said "We have come a very long way.....the language will resonate throughout the world".

Of added interest to note is that the conference, in its final declaration, acknowledged slavery and the slave trade as a crime against humanity and "should always have been so". It also expressed an apology in the form of acknowledgment for the wrongs of slavery and colonialism and offered a package of economic assistance to Africa, the continent that was most ravaged by the slave trade for many centuries.

Concerning slavery, no one seems to know when this crime against humanity started. Nor, for that matter, slave trade, another heinous crime against mankind. Even a cursory glance through the pages of any ancient world history book will reveal that as far back as the ancient Babylonian, Assyrian, Greek, Egyptian and Persian civilisations, slavery was very much in vogue. Slavery, in turn, abetted a thriving slave trade since both are like the two faces of a coin. Abetting both these crimes against humanity at large is invariably the discrimination based on race, skin colour, descent and national or ethnic background. It could be for this reason that most slaves were different from the slave-owning communities in terms of race, skin colour, descent and ethnic background. The vast majority of these slaves were obtained during wars, as the vanquished soldiers were generally considered as part of the war booty by the conquerors. As such, these defeated soldiers were considered to be the personal properties of the conquering army’s commanders and generals who treated them as virtual slaves.

Owning of slaves by certain nations, communities and societies had its own advantages in that they not only provided virtually free labour but also substantial incomes to the owners through the sales of slaves. Yet another reason that encouraged slavery could be the agrarian-based nature of the slave-owning society or community. Especially when certain sections of the slave-owning societies resorted to plantations to grow cash crops like cotton, tobacco and sugar cane. Since all these crops are considered to be highly labour-intensive, owning slaves greatly maximised the plantation-owners’ profits. Negro slaves toiling away in the cotton, tobacco and sugar cane plantations in the southern states of the United States were a case in point.

Slaves from Africa started to land in the New World (North America) around the early 17th century. At that time, the colonies in the New World were ruled by Britain, one of the major powers in the world. Concerning Negro slaves coming to North America, of added interest to note was that most of them were enslaved by Arab and white slave traders who, in some regions where they operated with impunity, were assisted by African blacks themselves. These captured Africans were then sold away as slaves to whites in some thriving slave trading ports in some parts of Africa. These whites, in turn, chartered ships to take them to the New World to be sold as slaves to work in the cotton, tobacco and sugar cane plantations.

Most Negro slaves in the New World were concentrated in the southern regions as these were climatically suitable for cotton and tobacco crops. Even when these colonies, led by George Washington, gained their independence from Britain in 1776, slaves continued to toil away in the plantations. But then, certain sections of the American society abhorred slavery which, they thought, was not in keeping with the founding principles, norms and tenets of newly founded United States. Throughout the decades after independence, debates over slavery cropped up intermittently. While the Northern states were dead against slavery, the Southern states, which owned the most slaves, stuck to their guns to the extent of even threatening to secede from the American Union. The question of slavery was finally resolved by President Abraham Lincoln, who, in his famous speech, "A housed divided", not only vowed to keep intact the Union but also strongly advocated for the emancipation of slaves. Just before the American Civil War erupted in 1861, President Lincoln kept this word: he freed the slaves through a promulgation. President Lincoln’s Union armies went on to defeat the Confederated States’ armies, thereby saving the United States from fragmentation and sounding the death-knell of slavery and slave trade. In fact, the US is the only country in history to go through a civil war over the question of slavery because it was completely at variance with the guiding and founding principles of the United States.

Yet, the freed Blacks, even after their emancipation, had to struggle hard to gain full civil rights. Fortunately, they had leaders like the late Martin Luther King Jr. who, in his famous speech "I have a dream" succinctly summed up their collective dreams, hopes and aspirations. His assassination could have galvanised American leaders and civil society into passing the Civil Rights bill and later, coming up with the affirmative action program that is assisting Blacks and other minorities to integrate in the American mainstream.

In sum, all this was—and is—possible for American Blacks as well as other minorities like the American Indians, Hispanics and Asians because of America’s democratic constitution, system, institutions and civil society coupled with an independent judiciary that not only fiercely guards its turf but also does not hesitate to strike down any laws that are not only consonance with the spirit of the American constitution.

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