[WA-News] Marginalisation and the NGO Forum

[Jennifer Radloff]

The United Nations NGO Forum feeding into the World Conference Against
Racism brings together 7,000 delegates representing non-governmental
organisations groups from around the world. Zulu warriors are mixing with
native Americans, church leaders from New York are meeting Burmese
refugees. It causes problems.
Translation is a major one. French, Spanish and English are available in
the larger workshops (although even these were absent for the opening
ceremony).
China and India, however, combined make up more than a fifth of the world's
population, but if translation to these languages is available, it is
unpublicised and scattered.
Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world, but there is no
translation into Bahasa Indonesia going on.
The most marginalised groups, those who lack the skills, or even just the
confidence, to participate and negotiate in these European languages, are
those who are losing out.
I sat in on a working discussion, finalising the input of indigenous women
for the draft declaration. The group was small, predominantly from
Australia and Northern America. There was one representative from an
indigenous people's group in Asia. While an effort was made to include her
points of view, time constraints and the strain of translation made it
almost impossible for the Asian woman to contribute.
And, according to some, the resulting documents reflect this. Dr Kua Kia
Soong of a national human rights body in Malaysia commented on his
experiences today.
"There was a tendency to be very North-NGO-based. They would talk about the
legacy of colonialism and then they would take about the trans-national
corporations, letting many villains, many post-colonial states today, off
the hook. Not necessarily in the north, but also in the south."
The question of who is setting the agenda at the NGO Forum is becoming
increasingly urgent. As the Friday deadline closes, it is apparent that
even among the participants at the forum, not all voices are being heard.