[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 34 (Thursday, March 21, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E402]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   MARCH 21, 2002 DESIGNATED AS UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR 
                  ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

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                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 20, 2002

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, March 21, 2002, has been 
designated as the United Nations International Day for the Elimination 
of Racial Discrimination. I think it is very important for us, here in 
the United States to mark this critical day. Racial Discrimination is a 
universal, global scourge. Confronting it and finding ways to defeat it 
are in the critical interest of every nation including the United 
States. Racial discrimination, xenophobia and other forms of 
intolerance are one of the principal root causes of international 
conflict. Our global war against terrorism cannot be won until we root 
out the global affliction of hate and intolerance. America's experience 
with slavery and our long struggle to advance civil rights also compels 
us to play a leading role in the international effort to cleanse 
humanity of the stubborn and shameful stain of racism.
  Tragically, in the last several years, the global community has been 
beset by a new wave of racial hatred. This new wave includes widespread 
discrimination against migrant workers in Europe and the Middle East; 
institutionalized racism against indigenous peoples and peoples of 
African descent in the Americas; and discrimination against women in 
the Islamic world. New forms of racism, often tied to the social and 
economic dislocations caused by increased globalization, are being 
spread by new technologies including proliferating hate sites on the 
internet.
  Mr. Speaker, for me as the only Member of Congress who is a survivor 
of the Holocaust, it is particularly painful to note that the current 
increase in racial hate includes an intense spasm of anti-Semitism. As 
a delegate to the UN's World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban 
South Africa last summer, I witnessed a particularly vivid 
demonstration of this new round of hatred for Jews.
  The conference's NGO forum, featured anti-Jewish rallies attracting 
thousands in the streets of Durban. One flyer, which was widely 
distributed at the rallies showed a photograph of Hitler and the 
question ``What if I had won?'' The answer: ``there would be NO Israel 
. . .'' At a press conference held by Jewish NGO's to discuss their 
concerns with the direction the conference was taking, an accredited 
NGO, the Arab Lawyers Union, distributed a booklet filled with anti-
Semitic caricatures, frighteningly like those seen in the Nazi hate 
literature printed and distributed in the 1930's. It was the most 
unabashed display of anti-Jewish hate that I have seen since that 
period. Similar images and messages can be found again and again in 
newspapers and other media in the Middle East, and on hate sites on the 
internet.
  Mr. Speaker, if the tragic events of September 11th have taught us 
anything it is that we cannot turn a blind eye to hatred and evil. We 
must actively take effective measures to eliminate racism at home and 
to defeat it abroad. We must make sure that our government takes 
effective action to prevent and punish racism in the United States. In 
prosecuting the global war against terror, we must demand that our 
coalition partners confront hate in their own societies and in their 
regions.
  I commend our distinguished colleague and friend from California, 
Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, for focusing our attention on this 
important day and on this issue. I also want to commend our 
distinguished colleague, Congressman John Conyers of Michigan, for 
introducing the bipartisan Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention 
Act, which would give local law enforcement the tools and resources 
needed to prevent and prosecute hate crimes. I urge all Members of this 
House to support this legislation.

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