Asia-Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)

[Ed. Note: The following preamble of the Asia-Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) provides the context for the suggested amendments and additions to the draft U.N. document for the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) and contains examples of the issues for which the organisation is lobbying at the conference that will be held in Durban, South Africa, from Aug. 31 to Sept. 7. The article below is part of the booklet Women's Human Rights: Engendering the Agenda of WCAR produced by APWLD in April 2001 for WCAR, which is available at www.hri.ca/racism/submitted/author/apwldlobby.htm.]

The third U.N. World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, organised by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), raises the international community's concern about racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance within the overarching framework of human rights, which are universal, indivisible, interdependent and inalienable.

The adoption of a human rights framework for the conference is a recognition of the continuing need to protect and promote justice, equality and the dignity of men and women. The recognition of equality as a fundamental human right is an affirmation of the commitments made in the Vienna Platform for Action from the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993 and the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995 to mainstream women's concerns into the U.N. human rights system. The Beijing Platform for Action states that "responsibility for ensuring the implementation of the Platform for Action and the integration of a gender perspective into all policies and programmes of the U.N. system must rest at the highest levels." We must ensure that this principle is adhered to at the World Conference against Racism.

Racism is not simply a theory or a collection of beliefs, sentiments or intentions. Racism is a strategy and a process of social and political control which functions to exclude opportunities and benefits to certain groups and serves to exclude the diversity of people's lives and rights.

The formal equality discourse in the human rights field tends to isolate racism from sexism and other forms of discrimination. As a result, sexism and racism and intersecting forms of subordination are treated separately. Because of this binary divide, the forms of multiple discrimination experienced by marginalised women and girls as a result of the intersection between racial and gender discrimination and related intolerances are unaccounted and unidentified and therefore excluded from discussions and recommended solutions. Issues of racism, racial and ethnic discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance must be approached within the context of an understanding of the intersectionality of all forms of discrimination, particularly those related to race and gender.

For too long, racism and its particular impact on women has been largely ignored. One form of discrimination can be blind to other forms of discrimination. Overlooking the diversity of women when dealing with sexism has meant issues of racism are not adequately addressed.

Recognising the role of intersectionality of gender and racism within strategies and processes enables us to clearly identify the ways in which racism is actively used to discriminate against women on the basis of their race, ethnicity, descent, national origin and other factors.

The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has noted that racial discrimination does not always affect women and men equally or in the same way. There are circumstances in which racial discrimination only or primarily affects women or affects women in a different way or to a different degree than men. Such racial discrimination will often escape detection if there is no explicit recognition or acknowledgement of the different life experiences of women and men in areas of both public and private life.

Women's rights are human rights. Therefore, a human rights framework for the conference necessitates that sex and gender should not be left out of the discussions on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. Gender discrimination is a human rights violation intersecting all other forms of discrimination. Asia-Pacific non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have documented examples from the region which prove that the oppression women suffer because of their race, religion, caste, ethnicity, nationality and other socio-political categories is aggravated by the discrimination they face because of their gender. Consequently, women are subjected to different and more frequent violations of their human rights than men, resulting not only from racial discrimination but also from forms of multiple discrimination on the basis of race and gender.

Moreover, we recognise the civil, political, social, cultural, economic and historical processes by which the constructions of race, ethnicity, descent, nationality or place of origin of women and girls lead to discrimination and the violation of their human rights. Intersectional discrimination must be examined based on the daily experiences of women and girls within both private and public spheres. Using this framework, we are working to hold state and non-state actors accountable for intersectional forms of discrimination against women and girls.

Certain forms of racial discrimination may be directed towards women specifically because of their gender, such as sexual violence committed against women members of particular racial or ethnic groups in detention or during armed conflict, the coerced sterilisation of indigenous women, abuse in the informal sector of women workers from ethnic or national minorities or marginalised caste groups and the trafficking of women and girls into prostitution or domestic work. Racial discrimination may have consequences that affect primarily or only women, such as pregnancy resulting from rape that is motivated by racial bias and compulsory HIV/AIDS testing for migrant workers. Women may also be further hindered by a lack of access to remedies and complaint mechanisms for racial discrimination because of gender-related impediments, such as gender bias in the legal system and a general discrimination against women in all spheres of life.

The priority areas where women in the Asia-Pacific region face multiple discrimination on the basis of race, gender and other factors include:

• Women and girls in situations of armed conflict;
• Discrimination against women and girls from Dalit and other marginalised caste groups;
• Women and girls in migration and trafficking;
• Discrimination against women and girls of ethnic or national minorities;
• Discrimination against women and girls of religious groups;
• Discrimination against indigenous women and girls; and
• Refugee and internally displaced women and girls.

In addressing the root causes of discrimination, it is important to understand them in all of their manifestations in order to find ways of eliminating them. Unless gender perspectives are integrated into policies formulated to eliminate racial discrimination, the gendered and often unacknowledged aspects of the discrimination will not be addressed.