310 8th Street Suite 303, Oakland, CA
94607 Tel (510) 465-1984 Fax (510) 465-1885 www.nnirr.org
News Advisory For More Information Contact, in Durban,
South Africa:
Catherine Tactaquin 082-858-9428
Arnoldo García 082-858-9619, agarcia@igc.org
NGO Forum Exhibit Booth: Marquee 3, A46
U.S. IMMIGRANT RIGHTS DELEGATION DENOUNCES RISING
ANTI-IMMIGRANT RACISM IN UNITED STATES
September 1, 2001,
Durban, South Africa –The
international migrants rights movement has come to the World Conference Against
Racism and Xenophobia (WCAR) in South Africa to denounce human rights
violations against migrants and refugees around the world. Migrant-based groups
and other NGOs are calling on governments to be accountable to international
standards and to strengthen international human rights protections for all
migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced persons.
The U.S.-based Immigrants
Rights Working Group (IRWG) convened by the National Network for Immigrant and
Refugee Rights, in collaboration with international groups including Migrant
Rights International, has seized this unique opportunity to shine a light on
the anti-immigrant, racist renewal taking place in the United States, and to
call on the U.S. government to cease all policies, laws and practices that
perpetuate racism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination and
intolerance. The IRWG, a delegation of more than sixty immigrant and refugee
community leaders from across the United States, is demanding that governments,
especially the U.S., fully implement the International Convention on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The IRWG has been
participating in an international migrant caucus, helping draft the NGO Forum
Declaration and Programme of Action, organizing workshops, and providing a
fully staffed exhibition booth. On September 3, the IRWG will release its
groundbreaking alternative report to denounce rising anti-immigrant racism in
the U.S. during a press conference with migrant rights groups from other world
regions.
The report, From the
Borderline to the Colorline: A Report on Anti-Immigrant Racism in the United
States (summary attached; full report available), documents how escalating
anti-immigrant racism and xenophobia violates and denies human, civil, labor,
social, political, economic, and cultural rights to immigrants and people of
color in the U.S., regardless of their immigration status – often with fatal
consequences. The U.S. government itself continues to demonstrate a lack of
commitment to taking action against racism.
Founded in 1986, the
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) is a national
alliance of local coalitions and immigrant, refugee, community, religious,
civil rights, and labor organizations and activists throughout the U.S. NNIRR
is dedicated to promoting a just immigration and refugee policy in the United
States and to expanding the rights of all immigrants and refugees, regardless
of immigration status.
The Immigrant Rights
Working Group, convened by NNIRR, is composed of more than sixty
representatives from thirty community-based immigrant and refugee rights
organizations.
310 8th Street
Suite 303, Oakland, CA 94607 Tel (510) 465-1984 Fax (510) 465-1885
www.nnirr.org
Summary of the Report From the Borderline to the Colorline
On September 3, 2001 the
IRWG will release its groundbreaking alternative report to denounce rising
anti-immigrant racism in the U.S. during a press conference with migrant rights
groups from other world regions. The report, From the Borderline to the
Colorline: A Report on Anti-Immigrant Racism in the United States,
documents how escalating anti-immigrant racism and xenophobia violates and
denies human, civil, labor, social, political, economic, and cultural rights to
immigrants and people of color in the U.S., regardless of their immigration
status – often with fatal consequences.
Findings and
Recommendations
Based on testimony and
accounts of immigrants in 20 cities throughout the U.S., the report finds:
·
Immigrants are
increasingly the targets of racial profiling by law enforcement officials,
suffer unequal treatment within the legal and criminal justice systems, and are
the fastest-growing incarcerated population in the U.S.
·
Immigrants, and
those perceived as immigrants, continue to suffer from employment
discrimination.
·
Immigrants of color
are often victims of hate crimes and life-threatening anti-immigrant racism.
·
Heightened military
presence and law enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border have escalated human
rights abuses of migrants and people of color.
In light of these
findings, the IRWG calls upon the United States government and other member
states to the United Nations, to:
·
Ratify or accede to
the U.N. International Convention for the protection of the Rights of All
Migrants and Members of Their Families; remove all reservations and fully
implement the International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination; and ratify or accede to the international instruments
for the protection of human rights
·
Recognize the right
of mobility and return for all people; acknowledge the interconnections between
globalization, displacement and migration; affirm the right of workers to cross
international borders; and recognize the right of all people to sustainable
social and economic development.
The IRWG also calls upon
the United States government to:
·
Uphold the economic,
social, political, labor and cultural rights of immigrants, refugees, asylum
seekers and trafficked persons.
·
Strengthen federal
hate crimes laws; uphold the rights of immigrants to due process and equality
before the law; and strengthen federal hate crime laws to include hate crimes
against immigrants.
·
Demilitarize the
U.S.-Mexico border to end law enforcement and human rights abuses.
For More Information Contact, in Durban, South
Africa:
Catherine Tactaquin
082-858-9428
Arnoldo García
082-858-9619, agarcia@igc.org
NGO Forum Exhibit Booth:
Marquee 3, A46