Human Rights Watch demands action

Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Monday that the WCAR must lead to lead to concrete programmes to combat racial discrimination around the world. “Victims of racism around the world expect more than empty talk - they expect action,” said Reed Brody, Advocacy Director of Human Rights Watch. “This meeting needs to offer something to the refugee in Europe who is beaten up simply because he is a ‘foreigner’, to the scavenger in India whose low caste prevents him from rising in life, to the Tibetan tortured by Chinese police, to the Palestinian under Israeli occupation, to the African-American child who is three times as likely to live in poverty as her white counterpart.” Human Rights Watch also said it hoped that the conference would include a call for reparations to address the continuing effects of slavery, segregation, and other extreme forms of racism; recognise discrimination against refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, and internally displaced persons; and address the issue of racial discrimination in the conferring, denying and stripping of citizenship. For a recent backgrounder and other racism related materials: http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/race/index.htm.