Source: – HYPERLINK http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/conferences/hrc2006/five/hrc070611am-eng.rm?start=00:51:40&end=01:02:17 http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/conferences/hrc2006/five/hrc070611am-eng.rm?start=00:51:40&end=01:02:17 
Date: June 11, 2007

Statement of Mr. Doudou Diène, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance

President, delegates, ladies and gentleman, it is my honor to present to you the following reports.  The Report on political platforms which promote or incite racial discrimination and then the report on communications as related to governments and then finally the report of my country visits to the Russian Federation.  President, the report that I am presenting to you today on political platforms which promote or incite racial discrimination is an update of my previous study on the question, and I felt that it was necessary as called upon by the relevant resolution to include in this report aspects of those factors which allow such groups to participate in political life.  I believe that the main platform which incites racial discrimination or promotes it in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in South America, in North America, and in the Middle East.  In my report, I confirm, ladies and gentleman, the very serious trends which I noted in my previous reports on the question, in particular the normalization of racism, racial discrimination, and xenophobia for political ends turning them into political instruments and then the penetration of racist political platforms of extreme right-wing parties and movements in the political programs of democratic parties, in particular, in all questions relating to immigration, asylum, and terrorism.  And finally, we see another serious trend which is the increasing intellectual legitimacy given to these platforms, and the increasing number of these so-called scientific or literary publications, which under the cover of defending identity, national identity and national security develop theories and concepts of an explanatory nature which are marked by racial or ethnic reading of social, economic, or political problems.  In my conclusions and recommendations, Mr. President, I underscore first and foremost the importance of the expression of a strong political will and great ethical vigilance to oppose not only the penetration of racist and xenophobic platforms in political programs and democratic parties, but also to avoid giving democratic legitimacy to these parties by including them in governmental coalitions.  And in this context I would draw the Council’s attention to the gravity of two increasing trends that we’ve seen recently in the normalization of racism and I suggest that I come back to these in detail in my next general report.  On the one hand, there is the ethnic and racial understanding of political questions and economic and social questions and, on the other hand, there is the ideological and political treatment of immigration not just as a security issue but also as a threat to national identity and we’ve seen a recent example in France with the creation of a ministry of immigration, security, and national identity.  Presidents, ladies and gentlemen, all of the serious trends indicate that the immigrant is ever more a species in danger.  An endangered species requires our attention, requires the greatest vigilance from the international community, in particular from the Human Rights Council.  And, in my report, I then encourage the participation in political life and representation of ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities in the decision-making processes in political, cultural, and economic life.  To bring an end to the two central expressions of discrimination that they are victims of and these are invisibility and silence.  In this context, it’s of particular importance, Mr. Chairman, that in the framework of the increasing multicultural nature of all societies that we perceive integration not as a refusal of diversity and of increasing national identities, but as a dialectic process of mutual recognition of interaction of different communities so that we combat the incitement to racial and religious hatred by racial, and racist and xenophobic platforms.  I recommend the adoption of legal, political and administrative measures which would allow us to ensure the respect and complimentality of those rights guaranteed by the relevant international legal instruments, in particular those which concern the freedom of expression and the freedom of religion.

Presidents, ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to tell you about my visit to the Russian Federation that was carried out in June 2006.  The Mission allowed me to note the lack of an official racist policy in Russia.  All the same, I did note the existence of an alarming trend of racism and xenophobia in Russian society which can be seen through the most striking manifestations of racism and xenophobia, that is the increasing number of racist crimes, in particular those carried out by neo-Nazi groups, and the growing level of violence of these and we see the killing of non-Slav individuals from Africa, Asia, the Arab world and from the Caucasus.  We see the extension of this violence to members of human rights organizations, to intellectuals, and students engaged in the combat against racism.  We see the existence of a certain degree of impunity that the perpetrators of such acts enjoy despite a substantial increase in recent months of prosecutions and convictions for acts including racial hatred or enmity as a motivating factor and the rise of anti-semitism as well as other forms of religious intolerance, in particular, Islamophobia and existence of political platforms which are racist in some political parties in Russia.  These manifestations, President, are linked to two fundamental trends: on the one hand the ideological grounds of the rise in this violence is rooted in the ethnic interpretation by extremist neo-Nazi groups and some political parties of the dominant political nationalism which have been promoted to fill the ideological void of socialism and internationalism left by the collapse of the Soviet Union.  On the other hand, the deep social and economic crisis in Russian society has provided fertile breeding ground for the political instrumentalization of the ideology of nationalism and promoted a culture of xenophobia and racism in the growing marginalized groups of society.  Amongst my recommendations to the government I highlight the importance of official and formal recognition by the Russian authorities of the existence of racism and the increase in racism and xenophobia and I recommend the expression of strong political will to combat it.  I also recommend a federal plan of action combat racism and xenophobia with the democratic participation of all ethnic and national communities and human rights organizations.  I also recommend the establishment of an independent institution aimed at promoting and protecting human rights and the combat against all forms of discrimination, in particular racial discrimination, and I recommend that the legal structures be strengthened and that the judicial apparatus be strengthened so that they can better punish those responsible for all manifestations of racial violence.  And, I also recommend the establishment in parallel to the legal strategy of a cultural and ethical strategy aimed at uprooting the roots of the culture and establishing a link between the combat against racism and xenophobia and the construction of democratic, egalitarian, and interactive multiculturalism.  President, Russian society has two major advantages in this combat.  The first major trump card that they have which has not yet been sufficiently exploited is the profound interethnic nature of the society.  This deeply-rooted multiculturalism structures the identity of the Russian Federation as a multicultural state and there is also the historic heritage of the Russian Federation given its fight against Nazism.  And all the peoples of the former Soviet Union sacrificed a great deal in this fight against the Nazis and we see the resurgence of groups of a neo-Nazi nature and this is a major source of racism and xenophobia at present in this violence.  The perpetration of racist and xenophobic violence is the most serious threat to the consolidation of democratic processes in the Russian Federation.  So, therefore, I will suggest that I follow vigilantly and I hope, with the cooperation of the Russian political authorities, all the developments in the situation.  Thank