The ICES at the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

icesblog — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 07:13:42 +0000

Racial discrimination and ethnic conflict are one of the main causes of wars and destruction in many parts of the world. In the South and South East Asian regions the rise of race-based notions of ethnic identity and politics is rooted in the history of European colonialism and modes of governance. That is to say, the rise of nineteenth-century colonial “scientific” racism which placed cultures, peoples and communities in a single civilizational hierarchy also to legitimise colonial rule, resulted in the construction of particular types of racial classifications of cultural, linguistic, caste and regional diversity.In a region where identities have historically been multiple, overlapping, and often migratory, and sometimes fluid, race-based notions of identity have had lasting political consequences, insofar as it has legitimised post/colonial forms of colonization by elite groups of less “civilized” indigenous groups, castes, or ethno-linguistic or other religious and cultural minorities. Likewise, groups fighting for self-determination have used the language of race and ethnic self-determination and victim-hood to legitimise violence, exclusive claims to territory, even ethnic cleansing as in Sri Lanka.The United Nations Special Rapporteur has often noted that violence against women is conducted in the name of the honour of the ethno-racial community. Rape as humiliation has a racial biological purpose – to dilute blood and heritage. Notions of race are then at the heart of forms and types of violence perpetrated against women as members of a particular community or group.

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The ICES at the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.