Fact Sheet on the UN Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance

The UN Conference was held in Durban, South Africa, from August 31 to September 7, 2001. The NGO Forum was held at the same location from August 28 to September 1.

This was the third UN Conference on this issue. The previous conferences were held in Geneva in 1978 and in 1983. They focused mainly on ending apartheid in South Africa, but also highlighted other crucial issues, including the rights of minorities, indigenous people and migrant workers, and the importance of education in preventing racism and discrimination. The World Conference Against Racism in 2001 focused on developing practical, action-oriented measures and strategies to combat contemporary forms of racism and intolerance.

The traditional format for UN world conferences includes two parallel meetings: the governmental conference in which governments are the decision-makers and NGO representatives participate primarily as lobbyists, observers and providers of information, and the parallel "NGO Forum" (held at or near the governmental conference) in which NGOs are the primary actors. The NGO Forum at the World Conference Against Racism was organized by NGOs themselves, through an NGO Coordinating or Planning Committee, with the assistance of various UN Staff structures. A representative of United to End Racism was on the Coordinating Committee.

An NGO Forum serves many important purposes, including to:

• Facilitate networking, information-exchange and coalition-building among NGO representatives,
• Allow NGOs to pursue an agenda and engage in activities designed from an NGO perspective,
• Provide the governmental conference with input from the experience and expertise of the NGOs,
• Give a voice and visibility to groups and to forms of racism that are currently invisible or being denied,
• Provide a space that is open to broad participation and that is not confined to UN terminology and protocol, and
• Provide a base for NGOs to develop strategies for lobbying government delegates and influencing the outcomes of the main (government) conference.

For more information about the United Nations Conference Against Racism, visit the Conference web site at: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/racism/index.htm and http://www.ngoworldconference.org