New edition of UN Chronicle magazine focuses on racism, racial discrimination

High Commissioner for Human Rights Says

International Community Far from Defeating Evil of Racism

The new edition of the UN Chronicle magazine, Issue 3, 2007, which focuses on racial discrimination, is now available in English and in French.  Titled The Solidarity of Peoples,it contains 26 articles on the present state of the international debate on racism and racial discrimination.  The contributions look at present and past forms of social exclusion of affected groups and populations, and the multiple dimensions of racial discrimination and related forms of intolerance.

The UN Chronicle is the flagship quarterly publication of the United Nations.  It covers a wide range of information and debate on the activities of the Organization, as well as issues of concern to it.  The magazine features interviews, essays and opinions from officials and personalities connected with the Organization and its specialized agencies, as well as from academia and non-governmental organizations.

In Issue 3, 2007, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, examines racial discrimination in an important essay titled “Looking Beyond Durban:  The Significance of Racial Discrimination on the International Human Rights Agenda”.  She writes:  “Despite a good legal framework and good guidance, the international community is far from defeating the evil of racism, which extends its tentacles in subtle and vicious ways.”  Highlighting the role of States, she notes that “Member States bear the primary responsibility to ensure the effective implementation of the right to equality and non-discrimination”, and calls for their determined and cooperative action by implementation of the Durban Declaration and Plan of Action, which they agreed upon at the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

An article based on the historical records of the Yearbook of the United Nations, titled “The Long Road to Durban:  The United Nations Role in Fighting Racism and Racial Discrimination”, walks us through the long history of actions taken by the United Nations to combat racism.  The writers, Peter Jackson and Mathieu Faupin, remind us that racism is “one of the first human rights questions to be dealt with by the world body”, beginning in 1946 when India drew the General Assembly’s attention to the treatment of people of Indian origin in South Africa.

Two special contributions on the impact of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery are made by the Vice Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies, Professor Rex Nettleford, and Brown University Professor James T. Campbell.  Other priority issues featured in the magazine include:  the misuse of science to justify racism; the new racism in Europe; State-led efforts to eliminate racism; racism in football; discrimination against aboriginal peoples and the Roma people; and race and poverty in Latin America.

Effective this year, each edition of the magazine features a specific theme and examines relevant issues in depth.  The previous issue, Issue 2, 2007, is a special one, titled Green our World, with more than 30 articles offering a range of perspectives on climate change.  United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon leads the discourse with an article titled “Now is the Time”.

The UN Chronicle magazine is available at the United Nations Bookshops at the Organization’s Headquarters in New York and in Geneva, and subscriptions can be made online at the UN Chronicle website:  www.un.org/chronicle.

For more information contact Yvonne Acosta at 1 212 963 7214, or e-mail unchronicle@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record