Annan calls on civil society to take up challenge

In his opening address to the NGO Forum at the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) on Thursday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged civil society participants to “shine a spotlight into the dark corners where racism lurks, in every society”. “So often it is you, the civil society activists, who breathe life into these events,” Annan said in Durban. “Sometimes it is also you who bring clarity, because you can discuss openly those awkward issues that governments have to avoid, or to blur, in the interests of reaching consensus.” Ahead of the opening of the conference on Friday, the Secretary-General stressed: “Many of you, I know, feel that your concerns are not properly represented in the conference itself. And you fear that they will not be reflected adequately - or perhaps at all - in the Declaration and Programme of Action. But your anger and frustration can be valuable in themselves, if you channel them into the creation of a worldwide antiracist movement, in which all your different struggles will converge.” Annan said that racism “aggravates every other form of oppression and discrimination. As long as it persists, the disadvantaged have little hope of escape”. The greatest hope for change “lies in the rise of a new generation, free from the fears and prejudices of the old. So the biggest responsibility falls on parents and teachers, and on those who write textbooks, or plan school curricula. They must see to it that children are taught to take pride and pleasure in diversity, and not to recoil whenever they see someone whose habits or appearance are different from their own.” For more details: http://www.un.org/WCAR/statements/sg_ngo_address.htm