WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST
RACISM
HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION BRIEFING
Speech by Pru Goward, 4 OCTOBER 2001, HREOC
- I joined the HREOC
as federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner when the Sex Discrimination
Unit was just finishing its community consultations with those with
personal experience of the special confluence of racism and sexism.
Since then, I have been able to follow the ideas gleaned from these
consultation through to the World Conference Against Racism and back
home again.
- The involvement
of SDU and myself were premised on the concept of "intersectionality",
that is the intersection, or 'double burden' of race and gender experienced
by Indigenous, migrant and NESB women in this country. The unit produced
an issues paper concerning the intersectionality of race and gender
which it published on the web and used to structure our consultation
process.
- I am pleased to
say that the Commission has been consistently committed to keeping gender
central to its involvement and contribution to the World Conference.
- At the conclusion
of our Gender Race and Intersectionality paper, HREOC discussed
how these issues could be addressed during its community consultation
process. In its consultation process for the WCAR, HREOC made the
following commitments:
- Making
the experiences of racially disadvantaged women central to consideration
of issues for the World Conference Against Racism, rather than
an "add-on" to the experiences of men;
- Listening
first to the people with direct experience of gender-and-race
discrimination, and only then acting and speaking on what is
learned.
- Making
the experiences of racially disadvantaged women central to consideration
of issues for the World Conference Against Racism, rather than
an "add-on" to the experiences of men;
- Also in the
paper, HREOC set itself 2 challenges - how can HREOC best realise
these commitments? And, how would HREOC best proceed to ensure the
issues and concerns of racially disadvantaged women are addressed
within the WCAR and beyond?
- I think the
community consultations the SDU ran in the lead up to the conference
answered the first challenge, while a commitment to enforcing and
realising the plans of action which have come from the conference
will determine our success in answering the second.
- At the conclusion
of our Gender Race and Intersectionality paper, HREOC discussed
how these issues could be addressed during its community consultation
process. In its consultation process for the WCAR, HREOC made the
following commitments:
- The intersection
between gender and race is an important issue for human rights. The
development of the conceptual constructs underlying this notion are
a relatively new area for the Sex Discrimination Unit (and, from observation
at the National Institutions meeting, clearly for other national institutions
also). For this reason I was pleased that one of my first assignments
upon taking up my position as SDC was to accompany the HREOC delegation
to Durban.
- The need to return
to Australia to attend the hearing of the IVF matter before the High
Court necessitated a shortened visit and I was only able to attend the
National Institutions Meeting and some of the NGO meetings up until
Saturday 1 September.
- The National
Institutions meeting was not attended by all countries with national
human rights institutions but it did include a significant number of
African countries. The purpose of the meeting was to frame a statement
for the WCAR. Although such a statement would not necessarily be reflected
in the final communiqué from the Conference, the meeting considered
the drafting of the statement was an important step for national institutions;
this WCAR being the first at which national institutions were to be
given any separate standing. The meeting expressed its gratitude to
the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner and in particular to those
officers who attended (including her Chief of Staff, Brian Burdekin)
for their efforts in promoting the role of national institutions at
the WCAR.
- Although intersectionality
between racism and other forms of discrimination, including gender discrimination,
was generally recognised by those participating at the meeting, there
was considerable disagreement about the forms of additional discrimination
to be included within the intersectionality section of the statement's
preamble. The drafting committee, chaired by Canada, spent considerable
effort in resolving this issue and the final and accepted draft only
identified gender as a specific and additional ground. Other grounds
were not identified in the preamble.
- Interestingly,
gender was an issue for many of the NGO and community groups working
in preparation to the World Conference. A number of groups worked on
getting gender prominently positioned in the conference discussions,
including WRANA (Women's Rights Action Network) and ANCORW (Australian
National Committee of Refugee Women).
- The significance of gender issues for racial discrimination was also reflected directly in the Declaration and Platform for Action at the World Conference.
THE DECLARATION:
- With its concern
to recognise and name the victims of racism, it was especially pleasing
that the declaration highlighted the experiences of those women who
experience racism in a different and sometimes doubled form. And in
doing so, it identified women as particular victims of racism, and intersectionality
as the mechanism by which this occurs.
- From the "General
issues" section:
- 3. We recognise
that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
occur on the grounds of race, colour, decent or national and ethnic
origins and that victims can suffer multiple or aggravated forms
of discrimination based on other related grounds such as sex, language,
religion, political and other opinion, social origin, property,
birth or other status"
- 68. We are
convinced that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance reveal themselves in a different manner for women and
girls, and can be among the factors leading to a deterioration in
their living conditions, poverty, violence, multiple forms of discrimination,
and the limitation and denial of their human rights."
- This in no
uncertain terms officially recognises what we have called intersectionality,
as a mechanism by which all manner of discriminations can be compounded.
- 3. We recognise
that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
occur on the grounds of race, colour, decent or national and ethnic
origins and that victims can suffer multiple or aggravated forms
of discrimination based on other related grounds such as sex, language,
religion, political and other opinion, social origin, property,
birth or other status"
- From the introduction:
- Reaffirming
that states have a duty to protect and promote the human rights
and fundamental freedoms of all victims, and that they should apply
a gender* perspective, recognising the multiple forms of discrimination
which women face, and that the enjoyment of their civil, political,
economic, social and cultural rights is essential for the development
of societies through out the world;"
* The footnote of this paragraph goes on to explicitly define gender as referring to the two sexes- thus specifically including women's social definition in relation to that of men, but precluding other forms of gender such as transgender.
- Reaffirming
that states have a duty to protect and promote the human rights
and fundamental freedoms of all victims, and that they should apply
a gender* perspective, recognising the multiple forms of discrimination
which women face, and that the enjoyment of their civil, political,
economic, social and cultural rights is essential for the development
of societies through out the world;"
- Overall, the declaration explicitly recognises gender intersectionality as interlinked with racism, and also that race is a determining factor in the effects and practice of sexism. And goes further to identify that the elimination of this intersectionality is a part of any States human rights obligations.
THE PLATFORM FOR ACTION:
- More than simply
recognising gender as a confluent source or cause of racism, the conference
went further to identify a gender perspective as part of the solution.
In the platform for action the conference specifically and repeatedly
recognised that including a gender perspective was essential to the
success of any measure introduced to combat the effects of racism.
- There are calls
for State to follow suit, as the P.F.I urges them to;
- include women in decision making (section 58),
- include programmes specifically tailored to combat the confluence of race/gender (section 22)
- include gender in the mechanisms that measure racism such as statistical collection (section 106),
- and ensure that they mainstream a gendered perspective in the design of measures used to test how far we've come (section 68). - 57. Urges States
to incorporate gender perspective into all programmes of action against
racism, racial intolerance and to consider the burden of such discrimination
that falls particularly on indigenous women, African women, Asian women,
women from African descent, women of Asian descent, women of migrants
and women from other disadvantaged groups, ensuring that their access
to the recourses of production on an equal footing with men, as a means
of promoting their participation in the economic and productive development
of their communities"
- 58. Urges States
to involve women, especially women victims of racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance, in decision making at all levels
when working towards the eradication of such discrimination, and to
develop concrete measures to incorporate race/gender analysis in the
implementation of all aspects of the programmes and services and resource
allocation;
- 68. Urges States
to mainstream a gendered perspective in the design and development measures
of prevention, education and protection aimed at eradication of racism,
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related in tolerance at all levels,
to ensure that they effectively target the distinct situations of women
and men.
- 22. Requests States
to adopt public policies and give impetus to programmes on behalf of
and in concert with indigenous women and girls, with a view to promoting
their civil, political, economic social and cultural rights; to putting
an end to their situation of disadvantage for their reasons of gender
and ethnicity; to deal with urgent problems affecting them in regard
to education, their physical and mental health, economic life and in
the matter of violence against them, including domestic violence; and
to eliminating the situating of aggravated discrimination suffered by
indigenous women and girls on multiple grounds of racism and gender
discrimination;
- Though of course
these have to be enacted, these statements are clear and manage to strike
a fine balance between the task of "mainstreaming" gender
perspectives, and differentiating special measured tailored specifically
for women.
- These sentiments
specifically echo the finding of our consultations. Namely that not
only must gender become one of the standard fronts on which we fight
racism, but also that women who suffer the effects on intersectionality
must have their particular experiences counted, and targeted by policies
created specifically to include this double burden.
- It is reassuring
to see that even on an international level the problem of the intersection
between race and gender has been recognised and remedies are being promoted.
- It is now up
to us to rise to the challenge set by these documents, and realise the
measures proposed to recognise and remedy women's experiences of race/gender.
- This international
recognition supports the interest taken in the intersectionality of
race and gender by HREOC and I believe will ensure that the issue of
gender remains prominent on the national, local and HREOC agenda, and
that Commissioner Bill Jonas and I can continue to work closely to combat
it at all levels.
- I appreciate the opportunity to have been able to attend the conference, and look forward to continued cross-Commission projects.
