10 December 1999
Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY NEW YORK OFFICE OF HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

At a Headquarters press conference this morning, singer, actor and human rights activist Ruben Blades said he would take very seriously his work as a Goodwill Ambassador for the World Conference against Racism to take place in South Africa in the year 2001. "I am not going to take it as an appointment for show but will really work on this", he said. He was accompanied at the press conference by the Deputy Director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Elsa Stamatopoulou.
Calling it a "spiritual disease" Mr. Blades said that racism was not only a problem between races but also between cultures. The more available information there was about it, the more people would understand cultural differences and be better equipped to deal with racist issues. Also, children needed to be informed on such issues since it was more effective to combat racism from an early age. During his work as a Goodwill Ambassador, he would take part in a world tour to visit colleges. He would also write a weekly column on the Internet on issues related to the Conference.
The notion of racism was very complex, Mr. Blades said. Many times, it was very difficult to understand what the real issue was since there were racial differences even among people of the same culture. All the different components of racism needed to be separated in order to understand whether they were economic, social or cultural in nature. In the situation of migrant workers, for example, there was a human rights component as well as an economic and a racist one.
Ms. Stamatopoulou said the World Conference against Racism was very significant because it would be the first one to be held "in a post-apartheid world".
The General Assembly had set seven main goals for that Conference, she said. Those goals were the following: to review the progress made against racial discrimination; to consider how to ensure the better application of existing standards to combat racial discrimination; to increase awareness about racism and its consequences; to make recommendations on how the activities and mechanisms of the United Nations could be more effective in fighting racism; to review the political, historical, economic, social and cultural and other factors which had contributed to racism; to make recommendations with regard to new national, regional and international measures that could be adopted to fight racism; and to make recommendations concerning how to ensure that the United Nations had sufficient resources to be able to carry out an effective programme to combat racism and racial discrimination.
Also, the issue of refugees, asylum seekers and displaced persons would be one of the subjects of the World Conference on a thematic basis. It would not be country specific.
Various regional meetings would take place prior to the World Conference, Ms. Stamatopoulou said. For example, Brazil would host the meeting for Latin American countries. In addition, the Preparatory Committee for the Conference

Human Rights Press Conference - 2 - 10 December 1999
would take place in Geneva in May 2000 and in 2001. Furthermore, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, would be the secretary-general for the Conference, which had a total of seven Goodwill Ambassadors. Those individuals had committed their leadership to combat one of humanities most insidious and persistent ills. Numerous Member States as well as non-governmental organizations had pointed out that issues related to racial hatred transmitted through the Internet needed to be addressed at the World Conference.
A correspondent asked whether freedom of expression was also included in his agenda. Mr. Blades said it was necessary for the Latin American media to take responsibility for what was written. During his candidacy for the presidency in Panama in 1994, pictures of his dead mother had been superimposed on the cover of a newspaper and there had been allegations that he was part of a military regime. He had sued that newspaper. "I am for freedom of expression as an artist, but I am also for members of the media to be responsible for what they write", he said.
The media needed to be held accountable about what it wrote, he continued. In Latin American countries, the media usually belonged to those who controlled the country economically. For that reason, it usually reflected the political positions, beliefs and opinions of those groups. Thus, the political and economic structures of those countries needed to change.
In reply to a question on practical approaches to human rights violations, Ms. Stamatopoulou said the United Nations had developed protection mechanisms since the late 1960s. Under those human rights mechanisms, individuals could submit complaints of human rights violations such as illegal detention and torture in prisons. Then, the United Nations would contact the specific government and those persons would be protected. More than 100,000 complaints were processed every year. There were about 40 fact-finding missions in different parts of the world which checked human rights violations on the spot.