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AG/RES. 1930 (XXXIII-O/03)(Resolution adopted at the fourth plenary session, held on June 10, 2003)
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,
HAVING SEEN the Annual Report of the Permanent Council to the General Assembly (AG/doc.4156/03 add. 3);
BEARING IN MIND that Article 45.a of the Charter of the Organization of American States and Article II of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man proclaim that all human beings have equal rights and that, in Articles 1 and 2 of the American Convention on Human Rights, the states parties undertake to respect the rights and freedoms recognized therein, without any discrimination for reasons of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic status, birth, or any other social condition;
AWARE that the preamble to the Declaration and Plan of Action of the Regional Conference of the Americas, held in Santiago, Chile, in December 2000, to prepare for the United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa in 2001, recognizes that “in spite of the efforts made by States in the region, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance still persist in the Americas and continue to be causes of suffering, disadvantage and violence, as well as of other serious human rights violations, which must be fought by all available means as a matter of the highest priority”;
CONSIDERING the report of the Inter-American Juridical Committee on the preparation of a draft Inter-American Convention against Racism and All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance, contained in its annual report (2001) (CP/doc.3545/02);
BEARING IN MIND ALSO the comments on this topic submitted to the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs by the President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, through document CP/CAJP-2033/03;
TAKING INTO ACCOUNT that resolution AG/RES. 1905 (XXXII-O/02) instructed the Permanent Council, inter alia, to “initiate the study of possible strategies for promoting, through initiatives in the areas of education and justice administration, public awareness campaigns, tolerance, and full and effective equality for all persons in building pluralistic, inclusive societies, on the understanding that national programs and international cooperation should be encouraged”; and
CONVINCED that the Organization must continue to make every effort to promote the elimination of racism and all forms of discrimination and intolerance,
RESOLVES:
1. To request the Justice Studies Center of the Americas (JSCA) to conduct, within the framework of its mandate and available resources, a study of the experiences of member states in, and methods for, handling cases of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and intolerance considered by their justice administration systems, focusing in particular on:
a. The extent to which race, nationality, creed, sex, or social condition, inter alia, can be a basis of discrimination in the administration of justice;
b. The extent to which the victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance, as identified in Chapter II of the Programme of Action of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, are discriminated against in justice administration systems;
c. The effective protection of the right to equality before the law, regardless of distinctions, as established in Article II of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, in the justice systems of states; and
d. Practices, mechanisms, and instruments which could be utilized to improve justice administration systems in order to prevent and combat all forms of racial discrimination and intolerance.
2. To request the Justice Studies Center of the Americas to also forward this study to the Inter-American Juridical Committee for its consideration.
3. To request the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to conduct a study of the laws of member states of the Organization of American States dealing with the adoption of policies to promote equality or affirmative action. Such policies must be understood in connection with Article 1.4 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 21, 1965:
“Special measures taken for the sole purpose of securing adequate advancement of certain racial or ethnic groups or individuals requiring such protection as may be necessary in order to ensure such groups or individuals equal enjoyment or exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms shall not be deemed racial discrimination, provided, however, that such measures do not, as a consequence, lead to the maintenance of separate rights for different racial groups and that they shall not be continued after the objectives for which they were taken have been achieved.”
4. To request the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to continue, in the framework of inter-American legal instruments currently in force, to pay special attention to this topic.
5. To instruct the Permanent Council, through its Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs, to:
a. Continue to address, as a matter of priority, the subject of preventing, combating, and eradicating racism and all forms of discrimination and intolerance; and
b. Receive and analyze for this purpose the contributions mentioned in paragraphs 1 and 3 of this resolution, as well as contributions from the delegations of member states, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Juridical Committee, and civil society organizations, with a view to examining existing strategies at the national level for combating racial discrimination and considering areas for international cooperation, including, inter alia, the possibility of an Inter-American Convention against Racism and All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance.
6. To request the Permanent Council to present a report to the General Assembly at its thirty-fourth regular session on the implementation of this resolution.
