Just for a bit of balance..... HUMAN RIGHTS FEATURES (Voice of...

Just for a bit of balance.....


HUMAN RIGHTS FEATURES

(Voice of the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Network)

(E-mail: [email protected]

The World Conference on Racism

A case of the pot calling the kettle black

The United Nations convened the First Preparatory Meeting of the Third World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Geneva in the first week of May 2000. Although, the word `racism' spontaneously conjures up the image of discrimination by whites against non-whites, there is no society that can claim that it is free from the scourge of racism.

Afro-Asian countries focus their attention on stereotype notions of racism such as the enslavement of Afro- Americans, the Nazi holocaust, and the attitudes and practices of misconceived superiority of Western countries, their policies and practices of colonialism and expansionism, and institutional discrimination.

Racism and anti Semitism is undoubtedly manifested more explicitly in the West, but this does not preclude the existence of racism in Asia, Africa and Latin America as defined in Article 1 of United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

Article 1 defines racism as "any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life".

Minorities in Asia face the same discrimination that they face in the West. The Koreans in Japan have no right to hold public positions, be it a job in the government services or an elected post in a local municipality, solely because of their Korean ethnic origin. Until 1993, approximately, 700,000 Koreans who were born brought up and educated in Japan were required to give fingerprints like criminals to the Japanese law enforcement authorities. The Chinese in Indonesia face similar discrimination in public life. Until earlier this year, the ethnic Chinese minority in Indonesia could not celebrate their traditional Chinese New Year publicly. Curbs on the teaching of Chinese in schools or its usage in the public domain continue to exist. Although many national constitutions prohibit racial discrimination, there is a yawning gap between rhetoric and reality. Despite ensuring Affirmative Action in the Constitution, India remains the paragon of the subtle racial discrimination that prevails amongst societies in Asia. India often describes the caste system as unique to its historical process. But, the caste system originates from "Varna", which literally means "color". The untouchables in the caste system, better known as "dalits", continue to face serious discrimination including mass rape and organized massacres by upper caste Hindus. Likewise, they and are banned from entering many Hindu religious places. The enactment of the 1989 Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Atrocities (Prevention) Act has been of little help due to poor enforcement.

About 3 million Burakus who are considered "outcastes" by ethnic Japanese because of their traditional professions like butchering continue to face similar societal discrimination. The contempt of the Chinese Han majority for minorities like the Tibetans, Uighurs, Mongolians and other national minorities whom they perceive as "barbarians, dirty, primitive and backward" is well known. Even the last Shangri-La of the world, Bhutan, expelled 90,000 Nepalese on the basis of their ethnicity in the 1990s.


The situation of indigenous peoples across Asia is alarming. The hill tribes of Thailand such as the Akhas, Lahus, Lisus, Hmongs and Karens are barred from participation in the political process although their ancestors have been residing in the territory of Thailand for more than 200 years. Only half of the estimated 500,000 to 600,000 members of the hill tribes in Northern Thailand possess official documentation that enlists them as citizens or places them on the record as being eligible for future citizenship. The rest lack adequate documentation and are denied access to education and health care. They can not own land and are not subject to labour laws, including minimum wage requirements. Because of their lack of nationality they are extremely vulnerable to exploitation and are deprived of the vehicle for access to fundamental rights such as access to protection and access to expression as person [s], both under the Thai law and international human rights law.

About 20 million Adivasis in India continue to be harassed under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 that identifies all persons belonging to a tribe as criminals. The Government of British India passed the Criminal Tribes Act to bring the rebellious aborigines in inaccessible areas under its control. The Government of India denotified them in 1952 but contrary to the existing legal right of an Indian, a member of the denotified tribe has to prove his innocence rather than the prosecution having to establish his guilt. Although, India's National Human Rights Commission formed an Advisory Committee in May 1998 on this issue, the recommendations are yet to be accepted by the Government. According to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Nagaland, non-commissioned officers belonging to the Indian security forces are empowered to kill indigenous peoples with impunity under the guise of maintaining law and order.

Indigenous peoples in Indonesia and Bangladesh have been victims of government sponsored transmigration policies and serious human rights abuses. This forced demographic change across Indonesia, Bangladesh and China constitute the most serious human rights abuse against indigenous and minority communities.

Asian countries often raise a big brouhaha about treatment meted out to illegal immigrants in the West. But, the Middle East and the East Asian Tiger economies have nothing to write home as migrants in these regions are subjected to serious abuses without a modicum of judicial scrutiny. Approximately 50 illegal migrant workers died in Semenyih Immigration Detention Centre of Malaysia between 1993-1995. When Tenaganita, a women's organization based in Kuala Lumpur, took up their cases, the head of Tenaganita was arrested and is facing prosecution.

Racial discrimination is not a new phenomenon in Asia. In 1959, Indonesia introduced two regulations that irrevocably changed the course of lives of thousands of Chinese expatriates. First, in an attempt to loosen the grip of the Chinese on the rural economy, President Sukarno banned aliens, mainly ethnic Chinese, from engaging in retail trade in rural areas of the country. Second, the Chinese were prohibited from maintaining residences in rural West Java. These racist measures of President Sukarno forced evacuation of thousands of Chinese to ghettos in major towns and cities.

African countries also exercised their own racial demagoguery against Asians in the 1960s and 1970s. Thousands of Asians, mostly from the Indian Sub-Continent, were driven out of East and Central Africa through a host of racist policies. After decolonization, thousands of Asians were denied nationality in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia. They were stripped of government jobs through enactment of laws, which were the main instruments to localise or Africanize the key areas of economic and government activity. The Kenya Immigration Act of 1967 stipulated that all non-citizen employees were liable to be asked to obtain work permits in order to continue their employment. The Trade Licensing Acts of Kenya, Uganda and Zambia included two major provisions that affected non-citizen businessmen. The Acts reserved certain areas - the non-scheduled or non-prescribed areas, which in effect include all areas outside the main shopping centres or a few large cities - for citizens only. Asians were allowed to operate only if they were granted licenses that had to be renewed every year. From the beginning of 1970, President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia banned operation of the Asians in non-urban areas. In 1972, Asians were partially banned in urban areas as well. There was indeed hardly an Asian family that was not effected by the Africanisation policy. African racism against Asians was exposed after the Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, gave notice to all Indians to leave Uganda within 90 days in 1972. Nearly 30,000 people of Indian origin arrived in Britain on charter flights stripped of their dignity and virtually all of their possessions.

The most vulnerable people, whether the aborigines in Australia, Native Americans and Afro- Asians in the United States of America, Maoris in New Zealand, Tibetans in China, the Adivasis in India or the Bushmen of Kalahari, continue to be victims of racial discrimination, xenophobia and domination. As the domination of one group by another increases on the basis of "race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin" in neo-colonial countries, the societal slur called racism, seems to be a disquieting discovery in Asia and Africa.

International human rights standards, adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations are applicable to all member States of the United Nations and not only to a pre-selected number of countries and situations. The ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) by 157 member States of the UN, out of which the majority are from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, indicates that racial discrimination is a global problem manifested in variety of ways. Even if racial discrimination is to be viewed exclusively in the colonial context, colonialism is no longer a monopoly of the West.

It is evident that when Australia threatens to review its adherence to the International Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the concluding observations of the UN Committee have struck home. Asian governments would do well not to be like the Australian ostrich with its head in the sand, but use the run up to this World Conference On Racism to do some introspection on manifestations of racism in each of their own societies.

-Human Rights Features


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