Racial intolerance at the heart of many humanitarian emergencies

Racial discrimination and xenophobia are flash-points in most major humanitarian emergencies, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Thursday. Millions of people are driven from their homes by ethnic tensions and hatreds. Many beneficiaries of Red Cross and Red Crescent programmes also suffer from discrimination because of their status as victims of conflict, natural disasters, poverty or epidemics such as HIV/AIDS.

In a statement on the eve of the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, Malika Aït-Mohamed Parent, Head of the Principles and Values Department of the International Federation, said: “Discrimination of one kind or another is at the heart of the huge rise in the numbers of people requiring Red Cross Red Crescent assistance in recent years. We are still dealing with the consequences of racial and ethnic hatreds which have uprooted millions of people from their homes in the Great Lakes area of Africa and in the Balkan nations of Europe and in many other parts of the world.”

Aït-Mohamed Parent said that racism was only the most obvious face of discrimination and that new forms of prejudice were on the rise in many parts of the world. She said that the Federation was increasingly alarmed at the role played by stigma in discriminating against people living with HIV/AIDS which has been evident since the epidemic first appeared some 20 years ago. This is now a major factor in the actual spread of the epidemic, particularly in parts of the world where people were refusing to be tested for the virus, as to be diagnosed positive in certain countries can lead to them becoming social outcasts or even being killed, the Federation statement said.