[WA-News] ALAI.- September 4 2001. Press release from Durban

[Jennifer Radloff]

ALAI.- September 4 2001. Press release from Durban 

THE IDEAL FORUM

Nelly Jitsuya

Chaos, conflicts, lack of coordination, inadequate, wrong or lack of 
information, as well as protests in response to these situations, 
seem to be elements that are present in almost every conference, in 
every sphere.  Imagine, then, the situation that the organizers of 
the World NGO Forum of the World Conference Against Racism which has 
just ended on September 1st in Durban had to deal with.  It is not 
only a matter of the broad range of critical, sensitive and extremely 
controversial issues, but also that participants themselves came from 
a diversity of life experiences and of struggles, as a result of the 
diversity of races, ethnic backgrounds, castes, gender, age, 
socioeconomic status, political ideologies, religious beliefs, sexual 
orientations, gender identities, occupations, health status and other 
diversity they represent.

Perhaps participants in this event against racism have demonstrated 
intolerance when facing organizational and logistic obstacles in 
Durban, demanding solutions to their needs instead of contributing to 
find solutions.  In fact, the ideal conference is not what the 
organizers offer us, but that which we help to create.

In view of this situation, the Sexual Orientation Thematic Commission 
and Caucus kept a vigilant eye on available information from day to 
day, carrying out a fluid and informed work, to their best 
possibilities, in order to influence the final documents of the World 
NGO Forum.  One of the results of this coordinated effort was that 
all the inputs to the World NGO Declaration and Programme of Action 
submitted both by the Sexual Orientation Thematic Commission and 
Caucus were adopted by the plenary, with no votes against them.  

Due to the persistence of exclusion, invisibility, and flagrant 
violations of the human rights and fundamental freedom of people due 
to their sexual orientation or gender identity, these two working 
groups demanded the explicit recognition of free sexual orientation 
and gender identity as a fundamental human right.  In that sense, 
discrimination on these grounds would constitute crimes against 
humanity.  Other issues raised by the commission and the caucus 
included the intersectionality of discrimination on the grounds of 
sexual orientation and gender identity with other forms of 
discrimination and intolerance; the right to asylum of lesbian, gay, 
transgendered people persecuted due to their sexual orientation or 
gender identity; the elimination of all discriminatory laws, 
including those on consensual same-sex partnerships, where they 
exist; that the UN convene a specific conference on various forms of 
intolerance that includes, specifically, intolerance towards sexual 
diversity and gender identy, among others.

The Sexual Orientation Caucus will continue meeting on a daily basis 
in order to influence the outcome documents that governments are 
drafting in the framework of the Third World Conference against 
Racism.  Among the lobbying strategies of this caucus, we must 
highlight linking the various issues being raised in the conference, 
mainly through the Linkages Caucus, since discriminations on the 
grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity are cross-cutting 
grounds of discrimination or grounds aggravated by other forms of 
discrimination.