In honor of the historic contributions of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA) to the struggles of African and Afrodescendent peoples', the US Human Rights Network (USHRN) is hosting a three-part educational series linking the Year of People of African Descent with the ten year commemoration of the World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia and other related Intolerances, also known as the WCAR or the Durban Conference.
Part One: The Significance of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action
Thursday, June 30, 2011
2 pm EST
Presenters:
Makani Themba-Nixon, Executive Director, Praxis Project
Dr. Conrad Worrill, National Chairman Emeritus, National Black United Front (NBUF)
To join this call please register utilizing the following link:
In August and September of 2001, the United Nations and International Civil Society, held the third World Conference Against Racism (WCAR). The first and second WCAR's were held in 1978 and 1983 respectively in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Durban Conference produced one of the most significant international documents in history pertaining to racism, racial discrimination, and racial exploitation against African peoples over the past 500 plus years, the Durban Declaration and Program of Action or DDPA (see http://www.un.org/durbanreview2009/ddpa.shtml) . The DDPA was the first major international document within the nation-state system that noted the economic roots of racism, declared that the Trans-Atlantic slave trade constituted a crime against humanity, and called for restitution and reparations for the victims of this historic crime.
The groundbreaking portions of the DDPA are the product of decades of organizing and advocacy on behalf of the social movements that constitute international civil society. Civil society organizations throughout the African Diaspora campaigned in many instances for well over a hundred years, to gain recognition of the three essential points listed above.
Our guest presenters will address aspects of this rich history of struggle on behalf of social justice organizations in the African Diaspora that lead to the three critical points of recognition listed above, the international social gains drawn from them, and the ongoing importance of the DDPA in the struggle against racism in the United States and throughout the world.
Biographies:
MAKANI THEMBA-NIXON
Makani Themba-Nixon is executive director of The Praxis Project, a nonprofit organization helping communities use media and policy advocacy to advance health justice. She also directs Communities Creating Healthy Environments (C-CHE), a National Program Office of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support local policy advocacy to advance healthy food outlets and safe places to play in communities of color. Makani has nearly 20 year of experience working with community-based coalitions as a highly sought-after trainer, technical assistance provider, and ethnographer. Her publications have helped set the standard for policy advocacy work and contributed significantly to the field’s current emphasis on media and policy advocacy to address public health problems. Makani has published numerous books and articles on race, media, policy advocacy and public health. She is author of Making Policy, Making Change and co-author of Media Advocacy and Public Health: Power for Prevention and Talking the Walk: Communications Guide for Racial Justice. Her latest book (under The Praxis Project) is Fair Game: Racial Justice Communications in the Obama Era, available on AK Press.
DR. CONRAD WORRILL
Conrad Worrill has been an active participant in the Black Power, Civil Rights, and Human Rights Movements for over forty-years. His overriding concern has been on developing viable strategies and tactics to advance the concept of African independence and self-determination at “home and abroad.” As National Chairman of NBUF, Dr. Worrill led the campaign charging the United States Government with genocide and numerous human rights violations due to the revelations of the US involvement in the emergence of crack cocaine in the African American communities throughout the United States. Accompanied by a delegation, he traveled to Geneva, Switzerland on May 18, 1997 and presented to the Commission On Human Rights the Preliminary Indictment / Complaint and 157, 000 signatures on the Petition/Declaration. Upon his return from Geneva, Dr. Worrill and the delegation visited the United Nations in New York to present thousands of signatures from the petitions of the “Declaration of Genocide by the United States Government Against the Black Population in the United States.” These petitions were circulated and signed, by African people in every corner of the world. Dr. Worrill has been a long time member of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N`COBRA). Dr. Worrill, NBUF and the December 12th Movement International Secretariat organized the Durban 400 delegation that participated in the historic United Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) that was held in Durban, South Africa from August 31 through September 7, 2001. The Durban 400 succeeded in impacting the WCAR to declare, “…slavery and the slave trade are a crime against humanity and should have always been so especially the transatlantic slave trade and are among the major sources the National and manifestation of racism…” Under Dr. Worrill’s leadership, NBUF was one of the major organizers of the historic Millions for Reparations Mass Rally, held in Washington, D.C. on August 17, 2002. More than 50,000 people African people from throughout the United States gathered and millions of others viewed on television the historic demand for reparations from the United States Government.
To join this call please register utilizing the following link:
--
In Unity and Struggle,
You need to be a member of TheBlackList Pub to add comments!
https://theblacklist.net/
Replies