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African And African Descendant Follow-up to WCAR African And African Descendant Follow-Up To The U.N. World Conference Against Racism

A Call To the Barbados Conference

9th -13th August 2002

 

After two intense years of mobilizing, meeting, brainstorming, discussing, lobbying, agitating and negotiating we now have a Durban Declaration and Programme Of Action, which has been officially agreed to and accepted by 168 nation states.

This represents a significant achievement for all "Non-Governmental Organizations" that were members of the "African And African Descendants Caucus"!

Even though we were unable to secure acceptance of all of our demands by this eclectic gathering of 168 governments, we can feel extremely satisfied that we were able to play a very significant role in ensuring that many declarations of principle and concrete demands and project proposals that are of fundamental importance to the nations and peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora found a place in the "Durban Declaration And Programme Of Action".

The critical question for all of us now is - "where do we go from here?"

Clearly, we cannot behave as though our task has been completed and adopt the posture of sitting back and waiting for the various governments and international organizations to implement the Durban Declaration And Programme Of Action.

To begin with, many of the measures called for in the Programme of Action require concrete work and involvement by the N.G.O's of Africa and the African Diaspora. Furthermore, it was always our understanding that any meaningful follow-up to the "World Conference Against Racism" would require the establishment of a very active and determined "African and African Descendant" N.G.O. lobby to keep the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action before the eyes and conscience of the world, and to push the governments and international community to implement the various demands, measures and projects that they agreed to in Durban.

There were some 41 Caucuses representing the 168 nation states. The Caribbean caucus, which includes Barbados, accepted the proposal for an immediate follow-up to Durban. It is with this understanding of our duty therefore that the Congress Against Racism (Barbados) Inc., (formerly the Barbados N.G.O Committee For The U.N. World

Conference Against Racism) on behalf of the Caribbean Caucus hereby sends out a call to all member organizations of the "African And African descendants Caucus" and to all other African and African Descendant N.G.O's that share our commitment to the Durban Declaration And Programme Of Action, to attend an "African And African Descendant N.G.O. Follow-up Conference" in the Island of Barbados between Friday 9th and Wednesday 13th August 2002.

The purpose of this 5-day conference will be as follows: -

 

(1) To scrutinize the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and to identify and prioritize those demands, measures and proposed projects that are of critical importance to the nations, communities and people of Africa and the African Diaspora;

(2)To work out and agree upon detailed strategies that is &nbsp designed to achieve the implementation of such demands, measures and proposed projects; and

(3)To establish and launch a permanent global Pan-African N.G.O.

organization, the mandate of which will be to pursue and operationalise the agreed upon implementation strategies. The conference will be held at the "Sherbourne Conference Centre", located at Two Mile Hill, St. Michael, Barbados. With the support and financial assistance of the Barbados Government's "Commission For Pan African Affairs", we have been able to secure the rental of this international quality conference facility, and to guarantee the provision of translation services in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.

Conference participants would be expected to finance their airline passages to Barbados, and their accommodation in Barbados. However, our Conference Organizing Committee will be arranging special discounted airline and hotel rates. There will also be a modest conference registration fee.

A Conference Secretariat has been established in Bridgetown, the capital city of Barbados, and is currently working on finalizing these and other details relating to the conference. The relevant contact information for the conference secretariat is as follows: -

 

Congress Against Racism (Barbados) Inc.

Pan-African Conference Secretariat

2nd Floor Thomas Daniel Building

Hincks Street

Bridgetown, Barbados

 

Tel: (246) 228-8757/8/9

Fax: (246) 228-8817

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Although our Congress Against Racism (Barbados) Inc. has taken the initiative to initiate this follow-up conference, we do recognize that the central coordinating mechanism of the conference must provide for input from the various geographical regions of the "Pan African World".

To this end, we are currently working on putting together a "Central Organizing Committee" of the conference that will consist of five highly respected Pan Africanists, who are generally representative of the various regions of the Pan African World.

Of course, the only role of the "Central Organizing Committee" will be to handle the arrangements for and the logistics of the Conference. The Conference participants will themselves determine the nature of the new organization and its leadership.

 

In addition to the "Central Organizing Committee", we are in the process of identifying "Regional Coordinators" to assist us in spreading the word about the conference and mobilizing N.G.O's in every region of the Pan African World to participate in the conference. Such "Regional Coordinators" will represent the following geographical regions: -

 

a) West Africa

b) East Africa

 

c) Southern Africa

 

d) North Africa

 

e) Europe

f) Canada

g) U.S.A.

 

h) Central America

 

i) South America

 

j) Caribbean

We will be asking each "Regional Coordinator" to stage "regional encounters" that will bring together the African and African Descendant N.G.O's of their region to engage in preliminary and preparatory discussions on the matters which will be dealt with at our August 2002 Conference. These "regional encounters" may take several different forms, including meetings, conferences, video or Internet conferences etc. It may also be possible in some cases, for two regional encounters to be amalgamated and held jointly.

We are proposing that the August 2002 Conference and the "Regional Encounters" be structured around the following seven (7) themes: -

(1)Reparations For The Nations, Communities And People Of Africa And

The African Diaspora

(2)A Response To Globalization And Its Negative Impact On Africa And The African Diaspora

(3) National And International Affirmative Action And Special Developmental Programmes For The Nations, Communities And People of Africa And The African Diaspora

 

(4) A Response To The Public Health Crisis Facing Africa And The African

Diaspora

 

(5) Reform Of Judicial, Penal And Police Systems And The Provision Of Legal

Remedies For African And African Descendant Victims Of Racism

 

(6) Memorializing The African Holocaust And Telling The African Story To

The World

(7) The Development Of National And International Oversight And Enforcement Measures, Structures And Programmes

 

It must be stressed again that the idea is not to discuss these themes all over again in Barbados! These themes were already discussed in Durban and during the Durban preparatory process. The idea is to identify relevant demands, measures and project proposals contained in the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action that relate to these themes, and to discuss and outline detailed strategies that we will collectively pursue in order to secure the implementation of such demands, measures and projects.

The "Congress Against Racism (Barbados) Inc." envisions that we will also use the follow-up Conference to establish a global Pan African N.G.O organization or "Coalition" that will have regional chapters corresponding to the several geographical regions of the "Pan African World".

We have given some thought as to how this new organization could be structured and have come up with the following ideas:-

(a)The members of this global Pan African organization or "Coalition"should be our individual African and African Descendant N.G.O's.

(b)The member organizations of each "Regional Chapter" could be divided into seven (7) sub-committees, corresponding to the seven (7) themes outlined above, and each of these "Regional Sub-Committees" will elect a Chairman. The Chairmen of the seven (7) thematic "Regional Sub-Committees" could in turn come together to form a "Regional Coordinating Council", and each "Regional Coordinating Council" could elect its own Chairman. (c) There could also be a "global" coming together of the Chairmen of the Regional "Thematic" Sub-Committees. Thus, in the sphere of "Reparations" for example - each region would have a sub-committee dealing with "Reparations"; each such "Reparations" Sub-Committee would have a chairman; and the Chairmen of the Regional Reparations Sub-Committees would come together to form a "Global Reparations Committee".

(d) The Global Governing Council of the entire organization would comprise the Chairmen of the Regional Coordinating Councils. We are also proposing that a suitable name for the new organization would be - the "Congress Of African And African Descendant Organizations" (CAADO). These then are the initial ideas and proposals that we are putting out for discussion and feedback. We are now in the process of setting up a Conference website as a vehicle for promoting the Conference and discussing and refining the ideas that we have put forward. In the meantime however, please do contact us at the addresses outlined above so that we could make full use of the very limited time at our disposal. CONGRESS AGAINST RACISM (BARBADOS) INC. Thomas Daniel Building, Hinck Street. Bridgetown. Barbados Tel: 246-228-8757. Fax: 246-228-8817. E:mail:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Rev. Aaron B. Larrier Chairman Congress Against Racism (Barbados) Inc.