Durban 400, HIV Related Discrimination, and Community Led Anti-Racism Efforts

On Wednesday, I was the most focused I’ve been since this conference began. I actually attended three consecutive side events for six hours, albeit with a bit of multi-tasking on the WOCU report which will be released tomorrow, Change As WE See It! (a report on 100+ interviews of women of color from 20 states and 17 countries in the lead up to and immediately following the US elections.) Stay tuned for the posting of this report. Yay!

I started off the day attending a session entitled “Communities Empowered to Resist Racism and Discrimination” organized by the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism and the Lutheran World Federation.

Mr. Kenzo Tomonaga spoke about the Buraku Liberation Movement. He talked about people compiling lists of Buraku neighborhoods and targeting folks for vandalism, harassment, and hate crimes.   He spoke about the rampant dissemination of hateful messages calling for the murder of Buraku persons via text messages, emails, internet, leaflets, etc.

In an interlude between speakers, there was a moving sharing of culture work by “Steven” in the form of a song about the struggles and quest for liberation of Dalit persons.  He was wearing a t-shirt that read:  “260 Million Reasons to Include Dalits in the Durban Review Conference.”(indicating the number of Dalits, in case that wasn’t clear) I did videotape his wonderful song, but afterwards we were warned that we may be compromising the safety of activists if they are doing their activism in stealth. So I’m going to write to the organization he represented and ask if it is okay for me to post the video.

Burnad Fatima Nateson of the Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED), in Chennai, India  (they don’t actually have a website, so scroll down in the link for an org profile) gave a presentation entitled “Women’s Movement for Just Society from Tamil Nadu, India.” She spoke about the plight of Dalit women and families. She described the lives of brick kiln workers who are living in small huts and how the entire family, including children work for less than $1 per day as a unit and their quota is that they have to make a thousand bricks in a day. 

She described how Dalit females are raped regardless of age, “whether they’re 13 years old, 3 years old, or 70 year sold” and that “these crimes are perpetrated with impunity. No action is taken unless activists bring the cases to the public through demonstration.” When men who were allies demanded justice, they were murdered. She showed some very disturbing photos of “men who were killed while resisting the atrocities that were visited upon Dalit women in the community.”  She stated that the aim is to make the state responsible for what’s happening to Dalit women.  

She also described struggles for food sovereignty and talked about how even their seeds taken away.  They are mobilizing women against genetically modified food with the campaign, “Our Land, Our Rice.”

Ms. Nateson talked about their work on environmental justice giving the example of the Tsunami where thousands of women were not listed in beneficiary list which instead primarily listed males. The women organized and demonstrated for inclusion.  They have also been organizing about the health problems (skin diseases, deteriorated eyesight, etc) resulting from women working in the polluted (effluent contaminated) backwaters where the women are responsible for fishing.

At the end of the panel a gentleman (apologies I didn’t catch his name) came in from the Lutheran World Federation to speak briefly.  He stated, “I have read the outcome document and there is nothing in it that could possibly offend anyone, which is a rather scathing indictment. I can’t imagine the outcome document can be at all encouraging to those most affected by racism.”

He went on to say that though the mechanisms are weak, he was glad that the document affirmed the need for urgent action and early warning mechanisms. He was disappointed that the mechanisms didn’t include an inquiry procedure nor does it address the collectivity of available mechanisms.

He closed by saying that it was striking that “the single largest excluded group received no mention except in the very vaguest sense”  and pointed out the urgent need to address situation of a quarter of a billion people who are excluded on the basis of caste.

The second session I attended was “Reparations for African People and the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action” Organized by the International Association Against Torture and the December Twelfth Movement International Secretariat.  (apologies, I could not find websites for either organization)

This session consisted primarily of viewing a documentary film of the views and activities of the “Durban 400” during the WCAR 2001.

For my last session of the day I went to a session entitled “HIV Related Discrimination: Restrictions on the Entry, Stay, and Residence of People Living with HIV” organized by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights. Panelists included:  Gracia Violeta Ross, National Chair of the  Bolivian Network of People Living with HIV, Gisela Thater, Legal Officer of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Maria Lourdes Marin, Director of the Action for Health Initiative, Susan Timberlake, Senior Human Rights and Law Adviser of UNAIDS, Marcia V.J. Kran, Director of the Research and Right to Development Division of OHCHR and the always phenomenal Jurema Werneck, General Coordinator of CRIOLA and Official Delegate of Brazil to the Durban Review Conference.

Unfortunately, even though HIV&AIDS is one of my primary foci of organizing, I didn’t take many notes because I was multi-tasking pretty heavily during the session putting the final touches on the “Change As WE See It” report we needed to circulate to the leadership of WOCU for final approval before the Friday release on the eve of the Administration’s 100^th day in office.) Thus, my notes are scanty at best.

Some of the notable issues raised by this panel were as follows:

• Through Gracia’s testimony of contracting HIV through sexual assault we are reminded of the key issue of the intersection of violence against women and girls, and HIV&AIDS.
• Linkages between HIV vulnerability and other vulnerabilities are increasing.  Similar circumstances that make one vulnerable to HIV also increase vulnerability to violence. These issues include migration, race, disability, and other forms of discrimination.
• Undocumented migrant workers/domestic workers are refused HIV&AIDS care and treatmen. Those in power are using immigration status situation as new tool to discriminate.
• Homophobia is an important challenge we must face as well. In Brazil they are starting a national campaign against homophobia.
• LGBTQ persons have a much higher likelihood of becoming HIV positive, so this is important to discuss.
• At this conference, with the exception of this session, gender is outside of the official discourse.  

I wanted to raise a question to the panel about a conversation I had a couple of weeks ago that continues to disturb me. In a team discussion I mentioned the importance of having a racial justice frame in our HIV&AIDS organizing and one of my colleague’s response was basically, “well that’s all well and good theoretically, but it’s not actionable” meaning that there is no policy agenda that we could push that makes a racial justice framing particularly useful.  Though that argument struck me as fundamentally wrong, I didn’t have an immediate response. I wanted to ask this panel about there perspectives on this issue, but realized that as much as the panel was about HIV&AIDS and it was at a racism conference, the panelists didn’t really talk that much about race per se. They mentioned the impact of race in terms of multiple forms of discrimination, but not really so much as part of an integrated advocacy strategy. I wish I had asked anyway. L

Finally, as I left for the day there was another large rally in front of the UN building of over 200 people waving scores of Israeli flags while speakers lamented about what they viewed as the anti-semitic proceedings that were occurring in the UN. One fellow who was a professor from the United States proudly proclaimed himself to be a Zionist and encouraged all to wear that badge proudly and then he led the crowd in a chant, “I am a Zionist! I am a Zionist! I am a Zionist……” He also indicated that they should “borrow from the anti-oppression organizing strategies of brothers and sisters in the black and brown movements as well as the feminist movement.” I did get video coverage of this rally and will post it when I get back to the US, if not before.