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CNN Saturday Morning News

Debate Progresses at World Racism Conference

Aired September 08, 2001 - 07:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Some important international news that's just been developing a few hours ago, a breakthrough at the World Racism Conference. The meeting in South Africa is now in overtime because of the contentious issues of slavery reparations and the Middle East conflict as well.

CNN's Johannesburg bureau chief Charlayne Hunter-Gault is live at the conference. She's got the very latest for us now.

Charlayne, what's happened there?

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN JOHANNESBURG BUREAU CHIEF: Colleen, indeed, the language is no longer contentious. It is the part of the official declaration. The European Union and the Africans came to an agreement early Saturday morning which acknowledges that slavery was indeed and continues to be a crime against humanity.

This follows an agreement earlier calling for an apology for slavery. The issue of compensation still is -- has to be tied down, but there was reference to debt relief and things that would help to contribute to development.

The European Union has signed onto this, and this morning in the main meeting, that language was presented, as well as other controversial language, which delegates examined in the documents that were brought in to them. Then finally, the secretary -- president of the conference, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, made the -- a very emotional and exhausted -- Dlamini-Zuma made the announcement that everybody had been waiting to hear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NKOSAZANA DLAMINI-ZUMA, PRESIDENT, WORLD RACISM CONFERENCE: There is a general agreement on these texts, on these two texts, and I would like to commend them to you for adoption. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTER-GAULT: That was the stunning announcement that there was also agreement on the language over the Arab-Israeli conflict. That was followed by various Arab groups, including the Syrians, having some objections to the language, which they asked to be included in the text. Now the session has resumed, and they're hoping to iron out all of those difficulties by the time the plenary session, the final session, begins in just probably a few minutes from now -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: All right, Charlayne. Now, the full U.S. delegation is no longer there, so I'm wondering, is it clear yet what U..S officials think, or what implications this might have on the reparations issue in the United States?

HUNTER-GAULT: Well, I mean, one of the reasons they had been -- there had been opposition to reparations was the fear that law -- and also branding slavery a crime against humanity, was that it would indeed open the door to lawsuits, both, you know, from individuals in particular.

Now, we don't know what the implications of the language is now. The European Union had said last night, Friday night, that they couldn't go with slavery as a crime against humanity because of the potential lawsuits. But that's been cleared out now, and we just don't know how the United States is going to react to it.

Indeed, we still don't know what the final declaration is going to say. It has yet to be adopted in the plenary session -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: And do you know, is the word "apology" going to be in there? Because that was considered a key word for some of the people there.

HUNTER-GAULT: Yes, it said -- it uses explicitly the word countries can apologize for slavery and historical wrongs.

So I think, in a real sense, this has been the major victory of this conference, where you will probably find most of the feeling of triumph. I think that if the language over the Arab-Israeli issue is, in fact, adopted, it will be, as some have said, in the spirit of trying to move this thing forward.

But I think that there will be some unhappiness even -- no matter what happens.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Charlayne, we know how important these things are diplomatically in terms of getting the language right and getting this done. But out there in the real world, how much does this mean, do you think?

HUNTER-GAULT: Well, I've talked to some human rights and civil rights lawyers who think it's going to mean quite a great deal, because, for one thing, some new rights have been delineated here. They've included racial profiling, environmental racism, that is, dumping in countries, often in third world countries, of nuclear waste and things like that.

So that this now, if it goes into a United Nations-sanctioned document, it will have the force of international law. And if crimes that are included in this document are committed, then it will hold out the possibility of bringing cases before international tribunals. So many people feel that this is not just a talk shop, and that this document is not just an empty one. Of course, the capacity to monitor and ensure that nations, governments, which have signed onto this agreement, because it is a governmental -- it binds governments to what's in the document, the monitoring of it is going to be important, and the enforcement is going to be important -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: Understood. CNN's Charlayne Hunter-Gault, thanks so much.

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