HRW also played an important role in condemning some of the
inappropriate criticisms of Israel at the NGO Forum (August 28 to
September 1) and in protesting the U.S. walkout. HRW's comments on both
issues received world-wide coverage.
The conference's final document called on governments to adopt
far-reaching programs to address intolerance and discrimination against
the 150 million migrants in the world, including education campaigns and
prevention of workplace bias. It asked countries to combat intolerance
against refugees and to protect the more than 30 million people
displaced in their own countries. In a significant step, for which HRW
also campaigned, the conference asked countries to allow women the right
to transmit their nationality to their children and spouses on an equal
basis with men, a right denied in many countries, especially in the
Middle East and North Africa. The final document also asked countries to
monitor and ensure accountability for police misconduct and to eliminate
"racial profiling." It called on countries to fund anti-racism efforts
and public awareness campaigns in schools and the media. It urged
governments to collect data disaggregated by race, which is a first
means of identifying and then addressing discrimination in health, the
provision of government services, and the administration of justice.
On another key issue which HRW had highlighted, the conference
acknowledged that slavery and the slave trade "are a crime against
humanity and should always have been so," and stated that governments
have a "moral obligation" to "take appropriate and effective measures to
halt and reverse the lasting consequences of those practices." This is
an historic recognition of the criminality of slavery and the moral
obligation to repair its lasting damage.
Amid controversy at the NGO Forum, another great achievement of the
conference was the unprecedented mobilization of victims of racism from
communities around the world, such as the Dalits, or so-called
untouchables of South Asia (see below), the Roma of Europe, and
Afro-Latinos who put their plights squarely on the international agenda.
At the conference, Human Rights Watch published two reports that
focused on ethnic strife in Côte d'Ivoire and caste discrimination
world-wide: "The New Racism: The Political Manipulation of Ethnicity in
Côte d'Ivoire" and "Caste Discrimination: A Global Concern." Both
reports received extensive attention at Durban and in the press.

For more on HRW and the World Conference Against Racism, visit
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/race/