13. Acknowledging the role played by United Nations in creating international legal rights and obligations against racism, racial discrimination, genocide, slavery, xenophobia and related intolerance, we nevertheless deplore the fact that efforts undertaken by governments and by the United Nations to implement these instruments and mechanisms are grossly inadequate, exclude civil society actors and have allowed perpetrators and accomplices to go unpunished.

14. Appalled by the persistent failure of governments and the United Nations to address injustices and violations committed by non-state actors including injustices and violations committed by no-state actors, including international finance and trade institutions, transnational corporations, and fundamentalist groups exacerbates and perpetuates racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

15. Appalled by the success and apparent increasing popularity of certain political parties and other groups that use racist and xenophobic ideologies in gaining and maintaining political power

16. Recognizing that state racism is often manifested by political and intellectual elites who exploit the nationalistic and xenophobic sentiments of the general public for political mobilization and legitimization of their authority and political power, not only in the traditional blatant ways but also in new, more covert, institutionalized forms, aggravated by the problem of denial of the very existence of racism by government officials.

17. Recognizing that while all religions are founded on principles that advocate peace, tolerance, non-discrimination, respect and acceptance of the other, and that freedom of religion, belief and conscience contribute to the attainment of the goals of world peace, social justice and mutual understanding among peoples, yet there are situations in which religion is misused to further political goals that promote racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

18. Considering that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance are the basis of gross violations of human rights and hate crimes, create and maintain conflict, and thus hinder development and constitute a threat to peace and democracy and must be addressed by all appropriate means, including effective legal mechanisms at all levels.

19. Affirming that Indigenous Peoples are bearers of both collective and individual rights which include their right to self-determination and to the legitimate exercise of control over their resources and dominion of their territories on the basis of their historical and cultural identity and have the right and responsibility to transmit to future generations their ancestral territories and identity.

20. Affirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, statehood, independence and freedom and the right of the return as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.

21. Also affirming the right to self-determination of all peoples, including the Hawaiian, Kurdish, Kashmiri, West Sumatran, West Papuan, Achenese, Sri Lankan Tamils, Tibetans, Roma and Travellers, the non-independent territories of the Americas, such as Puerto Rico, Martinique and Guadalupe, calling on the United Nations to devise mechanisms and procedures that enable the affirmation of that right, and in particular to respect UN Security Council Resolution 1359/2001 of June 29, 2001 on Western Sahara.

22. Acknowledging 50 years of ethnic conflict in Sir Lanka which has resulted in death, disappearances, rape, torture and destruction and affirming the right to self determination of the Tamil minority.

23. Recognizing that certain cultural groups with a distinct identity such as Sikhs, Mohajirs, Sindhis, Balochs face barriers on a complex interplay of racial, ethnic, religious and cultural factors

24. Recognizing that globalization is a historically uneven process based on colonial and imperialist integration of the world economy and on maintaining and deepening unequal power relations between countries and regions of the world that exacerbates, global inequalities and conditions of poverty and social exclusion

25. Deeply concerned that current forms of globalization and policies of international financial and trade institutions as well as the activities of transnational corporations prevent the full realization of economic, social and cultural rights of all peoples, maintain and deepen the social exclusion of groups that are most marginalized and heighten tension and manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

26. Recognizing that in the context of globalization, discriminatory labour practices experienced by men and women, youth and children and people with disablilities and documented and undocumented migrants groups who are already marginalized by racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance which makes them vulnerable to increased exploitation, poverty, and social exclusion

27. Recognizing the rights of all victims of slavery racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance to reparations of all forms

28. Recognizing environmental racism as a form of racial discrimination which refers to exploitation and depletion of natural resources and any environmental policy, practice, action or inaction that intentionally or unintentionally, disproportionately harms the health, eco systems, and livelihood of nations, communities, groups, or individuals, and in particular the poor.

29. Acknowledging that situations of armed conflict are often generated by racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerances and that such conflicts in turn perpetuate racism and related forms of discrimination, emphasise that war crimes must urgently be prosecuted at the national level notwithstanding the establishment of the International Criminal Court.

30. Noting also with concern that armed conflicts create an environment conducive to heightened militarization, violence against women, young people and children in particular the girl child, and persons with disabilities, which result in situations of sexual slavery, rape and forced pregnancies. The proliferation and prevalence of armed conflict throughout the world, particularly in Africa where three quarters of the continent is currently experiencing a state of war or some form of armed conflict, is leading to the large-scale displacement of persons, massive outflows of refugees and internally displaced persons and increasing militarization of millions of children and young people and demand the granting of effective protection to these groups and respect for international humanitarian law.

31. Denouncing the direct role played by certain transnational corporations and governments which lead to an increasing militarization and nuclearization on a global scale and in particular concerned about trafficking and trading in arms, the proliferation of the arms and armaments industries, the production of destructive weapons including landmines and small arms at the cost of spending on social infrastructure, all of which violated the humanitarian laws of war and contribute to the perpetuation of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and consequences thereof.

32. Recognizing the suffering experienced by many people as a result of the use of weapons of war including weapons of mass destruction, small arms, land mines against civilians

33. Acknowledging the violations of the human rights of the people of Vieques, Puerto Rico because of the actions of the US Navy, we demand an end to these military practices and return of occupied land to the people of Puerto Rico and payment of reparation to the victims

34. Condemning the US blockade of Cuba as a violation of the sovereignty of the Cuban people which results in gross violations of their human rights.

35. Denouncing strategies of some international agreements and international cooperation, such as the Andean Initiative and the Free Trade Area of the Americas project, as well as the Plan Colombia, which, under the guise of carrying out a war against drugs promotes large-scale internal displacement, accelerates dispossession and aggression against the Indigenous, Afro-descendants and peasant communities, leading to the denial of human rights including the right to self-determination, causing environmental degradation and the growth of militarization in the region

36. Recognizing that the persistence of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance affirms the need for an inter-sectional analysis of discrimination which would address forms of multiple discrimination.

37. Noting that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance create serious obstacles to the full enjoyment of human rights and result in aggravated discrimination against communities who already face discrimination on the basis of class, colour, sex, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, language, nationality, ethnicity, culture, religion or caste, descent, work, socio-economic status or origin, health, including HIV/AIDS status, or any other status.

38. Recognizing homophobia as a particular form of discrimination and a form of multiple discrimination that makes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons even more vulnerable to all forms of violence including hate crimes and racialised violence.

39. Affirming that multiple forms of discrimination against women limit or negate women's potential for the full enjoyment and exercise of their human rights and fundamental freedoms in all spheres of life, that patriarchal social structures reinforce all forms of discrimination against women particularly those with disabilities, and that racism also creates other forms of patriarchal subordination of women.

40. Gravely concerned, that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance adversely affect the full realisation of rights of the rights of everyone to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,

41. Recognising that people infected with or presumed to be infected with HIV/AIDS suffer serious forms of discrimination and exploitation., exacerbated by the WTO regulations which deny access to affordable treatments.

42. Recognising the important role played by young people in the preparation and the follow up of the WCAR and in adopting the Plan of Action submitted at the Youth Summit of the WCAR , acknowledge that young people are affected by multiple forms of discrimination which limit the full realisation of human rights, resulting in denial of their right to self-determination thus limiting their full and active political, economic, and social participation.

43. Recognizing that the slave trade, slavery and colonialism as crimes against humanity reinforced by apartheid and other policies of racial segregation and that the failure and refusal to acknowledge and make reparations for these crimes against humanity have played a critical role in entrenching racism, racial discrimination, anti-black hostilities, xenophobia and related intolerance. Consequently, African and African descendants are prime victims of deep seated racist and prejudicial practices which are manifest in current day exclusion and marginalization which they face in the African Diaspora and in Africa, which has paid and continues to pay a heavy price for this.

44. Recognizing that Asians and Asian Descendants including ethnic and religious minorities in Asian countries have experienced and continue to experience specific forms of racism and xenophobia from the legacy of slavery, colonialism, Apartheid, indentured servitude, internment, and exclusionary migration laws.

45. Concerned about increasing antisemitism which leads to violence and hate crimes against Jewish people in particular and passivity of governments in many countries with regard to prosecuting perpetrators of criminal hate acts.

46. Concerned that Anti-Arab racism is another form of anti-semitism and Islamaphobia that have led to violence and hate crimes.

47. Denouncing the pervasive nature of hate crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide and other crimes against humanity including wars committed against members of communities that face colonialism, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and those who advocate for social change and self-determination

48. Affirming that members of far too many minority communities, including national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities are collectively and individually subject to all forms of racism and institutionalized discrimination including denial of citizenship, exclusion from political participation, denial of access to resources and a dignified standard of living, political repression and genocidal practices because some nation-state structures that are majoritarian deny the rights of minority communities including the right of self-determination.

49. Recognizing that the Chechen people still suffer large-scale violations of human rights and international humanitarian standards we stress that military operations in Chechnya are accompanied by a wide-scale hate campaign towards the Chechens, which in particular results in mass persecution and discrimination against people originating from the region of the Caucasus when they travel or reside outside their region.

50. Acknowledging that the Roma, who are a non-territorial nation, dispersed in a worldwide diaspora are denied their right to a cultural identity, are disadvantaged and experience discrimination, persecution, stigmatization, and violence on the basis of their social origin and identity.

51. Recognizing that Travelers experience comparable levels of racism and oppression to Roma throughout the world and in particular to the denial of their social, cultural, political and economic rights.

52. Recognizing that the caste system discriminates against and enables segregation of communities on the basis of work and descent, such as Dalits in South Asia, the Buraku people of Japan, the Osu and Oru people of Nigeria and the Griots of Senegal and other communities resulting in flagrant violations of human rights and dignity, with women and children of these communities being particularly vulnerable to barbaric forms of violence.

53. Deploring the lack of policies and programs that effectively address the inter-sectionality of the multiple forms of discrimination particularly faced by people with disabilities.

54. Noting with deep concern that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance against documented and undocumented migrants, migrant workers and members of their families, refugees, asylum seekers, stateless and displaced persons is structural and systematic in character, is reflected in discriminatory legislation, policies and social and corporate practices, and manifest in both subtle and overt acts of hostility and violence against specific groups on the basis of differences in language, customs, religions, culture language, origin, customs and position in international power relations

55. Recognizing that xenophobia is a particular form of discrimination and intolerance which describes prejudices, practices, attitudes and behaviour that oppresses and rejects, excludes and vilifies persons who are already discriminated against because they are, or are presumed to be, foreigners or people of different ethnic, religious, linguistic or cultural background.

56. Gravely concerned about the failure of states to protect the rights of all those living within their borders especially in the face of increasing xenophobic acts against migrants, migrant workers and members of their family, refugees, asylum seekers, trafficked, stateless and internally displaced persons and in particular concerned about oppressive and restrictive immigration policies, the criminalization, stigmatisation, targeting and victimisation of these groups.

57. Noting with concern the increasing numbers of refugees, asylum seekers, stateless and internally displaced persons, including those displaced by economic processes and developmental projects most of whom are women and children, whose rights are not fully and appropriately protected by the relevant international, regional and sub-regional legal instruments or national legislation, and who consequently are more vulnerable to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in the receiving regions and countries

58. Recognizing that trafficking in persons as a contemporary form of slavery based on patriarchal notions of sexuality and exacerbated by economic inequalities which primarily affects women and children of poor and marginalized communities and which takes place within and across many countries across the world including in Mauritania, Sudan, Cameroon and Niger.

59. Recognizing the need to give special consideration to the concerns and needs of victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance including women, children, young people, persons with disabilities, people of African descent, Indigenous Peoples, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons, disabled persons, the impoverished, and persons living in situations or countries in conflict, who are discriminated against by the criminal justice system, as well as to the incarceration and withholding of legal rights and services to asylum seekers and refugees.

60. Recognizing that victims of slavery, genocide, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance have the right to effective civil remedies and criminal sanctions against government agencies , corporate institutions and their employees We also recognize that these victims, for victims have been disparately and , disproportionately targeted, prosecuted and sentenced due to their race, caste, nationality, ethnic background, religious beliefs or other differences.

61. Drawing inspiration from the slogan of the WCAR, 'UNITED TO COMBAT RACISM: EQUALITY, JUSTICE AND DIGNITY' and hopeful that the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance will affirm the commitment of the United Nations to developing practical, action oriented measures and strategies to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

62. Convinced that the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance will be an important occasion for healing, reconciliation and emancipation of the victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and encouraged by the growing universal movement driven by civil society committed for the creation of a world free from racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerances.

AFRICANS AND AFRICAN DESCENDANTS

63. Africans and African Descendants share a common history shaped by the slave trade, slavery, conquest, colonisation and apartheid, all of which constitute crimes against humanity, and a common experience of anti-Black racism. We acknowledge that people of African descent live all over the world, although in many instances they have been renamed, suppressed and marginalized. On every continent African and African Descendants continue to suffer from racism, discrimination, doctrines and practices of racial supremacy, hate violence and related intolerance. It is the complexity and intersection of these historical and continuing common roots, experiences and struggles to overcome them, that bind Africans and African Descendants together as a world community.

64. We affirm that the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the enslavement of Africans and African Descendants was a crime against humanity and a unique tragedy in the history of humanity, and that its roots and bases were economic, institutional, systemic and transnational in dimension.

65. We further acknowledge the negative impact of the Trans-Saharan and Trans-Indian Ocean Slave Trade and slavery.

66. We recognise that the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and slavery, which constitute crimes against humanity, forced the brutal removal and the largest forced migration in history (over one hundred million), caused the death of millions of Africans, destroyed African civilizations, impoverished African economies and formed the basis for Africa's under-development and marginalization which continues to this date. We acknowledge that Africa was dismembered and divided among European powers, which created Western monopolies for the continued exploitation of African natural resources for the benefit of Western economies and industries.

67. We recognise also that part of the Trans-Saharan Slave Trade continues unabated to this day, despite international agreements that condemn slavery, and that the trafficking of African men, women and children for forced labour and enslavement is still ongoing in Cameroon, Mauritania, Niger and Sudan whilst these and other forms of involuntary servitude of Africans and African Descendants have resulted in substantial and lasting economic, political and cultural damage to the continent. This form of exploitation is particularly damaging to African and African Descendant women, who are still victims of sexual trafficking and sexual exploitation.

68. We condemn the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, slavery and colonization as crimes against humanity. Whereas Western economic institutions criminally exploited Africans and their descendants, used criminally transported people of Africa as chattel and continued to breed Africans as chattel. Post-slavery African Descendants have endured official and de facto segregative policies of governments, affecting political, economic, educational, cultural and social rights, causing and legitimising theft of land and racial violence. African Descendants have suffered the loss of their culture, identities, and languages and have been victimised by the perpetuation of negative stereotypes, psychological damage, racial discrimination, economic disadvantage and the criminalisation of their peoples. These conditions have uniquely impacted African and African Descendant women whose bodies, familial roles and reproductive ability have been used as a tool of oppression and exploited for the production of economic wealth and whose forced labour under inhumane circumstances and the use of specific negative stereotypes all have been and continue to be used to maintain the subordinate position of African and African Descendant women at the bottom of the social, economic, cultural and political system.

69. We recognise that the development of Africa has been greatly impeded by the global imbalances in power created by the slave trade, slavery and colonialism as crimes against humanity and other forms of exploitation and is maintained and extended particularly by neo-colonial economic policies and practices including the pillage of human and material resources of Africa and the draining of its financial resources by foreign debt services. The legacy of these abhorrent crimes is manifested in wars, displacements and the precarious socio-economic situation in which Africans find themselves.

SLAVE TRADE AND SLAVERY

70. Recognising that the Trans-Atlantic, Trans-Saharan and Trans-Indian Ocean slave trade and slavery constitute crimes against humanity and were based on economic exploitation, doctrines of racial supremacy and racial hatred and have subjected Africans and African descendants, Indigenous Peoples and many others to the most horrific denigration of their being including classification as sub-humans and chattel, subjugation to rape, forced labour, branding, lashings, murder, maiming, destruction of their languages, cultures, psychological and spiritual well-being resulting in structural subordination which continues to the present.

REPARATIONS

71. Slave-holder nations, colonizers and occupying countries have unjustly enriched themselves at the expense of those people that they enslaved and colonized and whose land they have occupied. As these nations largely owe their political, economic and social domination to the exploitation of Africa, Africans and Africans in the Diaspora they should recognize their obligation to provide these victims just and equitable reparations.

72. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, slavery and colonialism is a crime against humanity because of its abhorrent barbarism, its magnitude, long duration, numbers of people brutalized and murdered and because of their negation of the very essence of humanity of their victims, therefore, reparations programs must be comprehensive enough in addressing all areas of concern including economic, educational, health, land ownership and possession as well as the racially biased systems of administration of justice that brutalize Africans and people of African Descent.

73. The Trans-Saharan and Trans-Indian Ocean Slave Trades and slavery must also be acknowledged and recognised as crimes against humanity, which brutalised communities and stripped people of their dignity, and for which those communities must receive justice and redress.

74. There is an unbroken chain from the slave trade, slavery, colonialism, foreign occupation, apartheid, racial discrimination and the contemporary forms of structural racism that maintain barriers to the full and equal participation of the victims of racism and discrimination in all spheres of public life;

75. The enslavement of Indigenous Peoples, the appropriation of their lands and exploitation of their resources must be acknowledged and repaired and the historic precedents for reparations to the victims of gross violations of human rights should be applied to them;

76. Victims of declared and undeclared wars throughout the world have had their human rights violated because of their race, ethnicity and the intersection of race, ethnicity and gender and disability and are in need of reparation;

ANTISEMITISM

77. Antisemitism is one of the oldest, most pernicious and prevalent forms of racism which still exists and is even increasing in many areas of the world; recognizing the dehumanization, persecution and genocide of Jews in the Holocaust, as well as other minorities during and before World War II; deeply alarmed by the continued activities of proponents of Holocaust denial and Holocaust revisionism, Holocaust trivialization, Holocaust minimization and by the channelling of racist rhetoric and calls to violence on the Internet; noting with distress that Jewish people still suffer from persisting prejudices and are victims of a deeply rooted antisemitism in many countries throughout the world; distressed by the recent desecration of many Jewish cemeteries, synagogues, and Jewish communal buildings and other property, as well as an increase in harassment and assaults of Jewish people worldwide; convinced of the necessity of more effective measures to address the issue of antisemitism worldwide today in order to counter these phenomena and increase awareness about them.

78. Antisemitism remains a pervasive and ingrained form of religious discrimination and Jewish people are increasingly a racialized minority; recognizing that Jewish populations and institutions continue to be targets of threats and acts of violence in countries around the world, and documented overt acts of antisemitic harassment and vandalism are on the rise; alarmed that extremist groups are proliferating at an alarming rate and propagating antisemitic and racist views and hate propaganda, increasingly on the Internet; deeply troubled by the electoral successes of far right parties, with an increasing presence in coalition governments; profoundly concerned that in many countries in the world, Jewish people live in fear, frequently terrorized by extremist groups, and discriminated against in employment, education, in the media and social services. ,

ARAB AND MIDDLE EAST

79. Arabs as a Semitic people have also suffered from alternative forms of anti semitism, manifesting itself as anti Arab discrimination and for those Arabs who are Muslim, also as Islamophobia.

ASIANS AND ASIAN DESCENDANTS

80. Asians and Asian Descendants face deep-seated racism and xenophobia, lack access to political, economic and social opportunities, are denied civil rights and liberties, and are victims of especially violent hate crimes, racial profiling, discriminatory employment and unjust immigration policies and practices. In some cases communities such as Sikhs and others with distinct identities composed of a complex interplay of racial, ethnic, religious and cultural factors face institutional discrimination due to the fact that they do not fit into traditional notions of race and ethnicity.

81. We note with concern that despite the contributions they have made to the countries where they live, and regardless of their long history of residence in these countries, Asians and Asian descendants continue to face distortion or omissions of their role in history in school texts and the media, and are viewed as inassimilable foreigners, security risks, spies and terrorists.

82. We are concerned that Diasporic Asian descendants are often criminalized and used as scapegoats for social and economic problems and international conflicts, and are subject to laws and practices that overtly and systematically discriminate against them.

83. We note with concern that Asian and Asian Descendant women in particular suffer many of the negative effects of globalization and of the intersection of sexism, racism and poverty, for example as manifested in the portrayal of Asian women as submissive and exotic sexual objects in the media as well as in traditional and historical negative attitudes that make them vulnerable to trafficking for prostitution as mail order brides, domestic workers, low wage or sweat shop workers, and as bonded labour.

CASTE AND DISCRIMINATION BASED ON WORK AND DESCENT

84. Work and descent based discrimination, including caste discrimination and untouchability, being a historically entrenched, false ideological construct sanctioned by religion and culture, which is hereditary in nature and affects over 300 million people in the Asia Pacific and African regions at the personal, social and structural levels, irrespective of their religious affiliation.

85. The practice of untouchability, rooted in the caste system, stigmatises 260 million Dalits in South Asia as 'polluted' or 'impure', thereby denying them entry into places of religious worship, participation in religious festivals, assigning them menial and degrading work including cleaning toilets, skinning and disposal of dead animals, digging graves and sweeping, and the forced prostitution of Dalit women and girls through the traditional system of temple prostitution (Devadasi).

86. The system of 'Hidden apartheid' based on caste practices of distinction, exclusion and restrictions denies Dalits' enjoyment of their economic, social, political, cultural and religious rights, exposing them to all forms of violence and manifests itself in the segregation of housing settlements and cemeteries, segregation in tea stalls ('two-cup' system), denial of access to common drinking water, restaurants, places of worship, restrictions on marriage and other insidious measures all of which inhibit their development as equals.

87. Caste discrimination and 'untouchability' practised against generations of Dalits for centuries together amounts to systemic 'generational and cultural Daliticide', which is the mass-scale destruction of their individual and collective identity, dignity and self-respect for generations through cultural methods and practices.

88. Any action or even any sign of an attempt to act by Dalits either individually or collectively to assert their rights is met with extreme measures of violence such as burning or destruction of their homes, property and crops, social boycott, rape or gang rape of Dalit women and murder by dominant caste individuals or groups, police or the bureaucracy, and that in such instances the State often acts with impunity and in connivance with these perpetrators.

89. Work and descent based discrimination against the Buraku people of Japan has existed for over 400 years and continues to be experienced today by over 3 million people in relation to marriage, employment and education, with new forms of discrimination emerging such as discriminatory propaganda and incitement to discrimination against them, especially on the Internet.

90. The vulnerability of the victims of work and descent based discrimination, including caste discrimination and untouchability, is aggravated by legal systems and law enforcement machinery that fail to protect them and hence are responsible for the continued perpetuation of discrimination, and by States that are themselves often the law-breakers.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND JUDICIAL SYSTEMS

91. We recognize the obligations of governments to remove or amend in accordance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination all forms of legislation, policies or practices that have the purpose or effect of discriminating against any person on the basis of race, religion, nationality, language, caste, ethnicity, or minority or refugee status, through the full integration of international instruments relevant to racism into national laws, regulations and administrative practices, and the identification and elimination at the national and local level of institutionalized racism existing in the policies, procedures, practices and culture of public or private criminal justice institutions.

92. We recognize the value and importance of the binding General Recommendations issued by CERD that CERD consider issuing a separate General Recommendation interpreting racial discrimination as constituting “degrading treatment” within the meaning of article 3 of European Charter of Human Rights as interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights.

93. We recognize the need to give special consideration to the concerns and needs of women, young people, persons of African descent, Indigenous Peoples, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons, disabled persons, the impoverished, and persons living in situations or countries of conflict, who are affected by the criminal justice system, as well as to the incarceration and withholding of legal rights and services to asylum seekers and refugees.

94. We recognize the obligation to have effective remedies, including remedies against government agencies and officers, for victims of racial and other forms of discrimination who have been disparately impacted upon, disproportionately targeted, prosecuted and sentenced due to their race, nationality, ethnic background, religious beliefs or other differences.

COLONIALISM AND FOREIGN OCCUPATION

95. Colonialism represents one of the most serious violations of national sovereignty of states and breach of international law, and in almost all colonial territories serious crimes against humanity were committed by colonial powers.

96. Foreign occupation creates an environment in which the occupied people are exposed to a wide range of systemic and gross violations of human rights and freedoms, including dispossession, displacement and denial of their right to self determination and women of occupied territories are subjected to rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy and other forms of violence against women.

97. Acknowledging that a foreign occupation which imposes an alien domination and subjugation with the denial of territorial integrity amounts to colonialism (according to the principles of the 'Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples' of the UN General Assembly 1960) and denies the fundamental rights of self determination, independence and freedom of the people under occupation. It also creates an environment in which the occupied people are exposed to a wide range of systematic and gross violations of human rights and freedom. We extend our solidarity to the struggles for self � determination for people of Palestine, West Sumatra, Aceh-Sumatra, Bougainville, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, North Cyprus, and other states and indigenous communities including the Kurdish people, the indigenous people in the north east of India and in the north east of Sri Lanka, in Tibet, Kashmir, Bhutan, Mindanao and the non independent countries of the Caribbean, like Puerto Rico and recognize the situation of other people living under foreign occupation in different parts of the world.