- Conference
- 2007 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 22 September 2006
- Decision
- Carried
This Conference notes that UNISON sent a delegation to the UN World Conference against Racism 2001 as it did to the UN Women’s World Conference.
We applaud the fact that a conference of over 160 nation states agreed that slavery was a crime against humanity even though the United Kingdom and the United States of America fought against this. We also applaud the decision to have those nation states produce action plans to address racism.
We are disappointed that many, including the UK have done this half heartedly and without proper discussion with Black communities. We are disappointed but not surprised that the UN has not seen fit to call the usual 5 yearly follow on conference to monitor process and continue to address the issue. Many will see this as a lack of real commitment to fighting racism especially where they have done this for women.
There may have been a fear for some that these conferences would then put pressure on them to apologise for slavery and then pay reparations.
That is no excuse for lack of action.
We support the work of the Black communities themselves in taking forward work from the Conference. We welcome the creation of the Global Afrikan Conference to especially address Afrikan issues and await the creation of similar organisations for other ethnic groups as was agreed at the Conference.
We instruct the National Black Members’ Committee to work with the National Executive Council to:
1)support the Global Afrikan Conference (GAC) and similar bodies through affiliations, donations and any other means necessary and
2) encourage the UK Government to ensure the UN World Conference Against Racism is followed up at a global level to address racism globally.