Youths Take Action against Racism; UN Racism Conference Raises Basic Problem of Human Rights
hen it comes to being active in humanitarian issues(인권문제), age does not matter. Youths in the world are thoughtful and serious about these issues. Don’t ever underestimate the power of the world's youths. Sometimes they’re better activists because they “move” rather than sit and debate forever.
Early last week, young people from around the world rushed to the South African port city of Durban. They had no time to take a break from their long trip since they had to draw up a plan of action. Yes. They came all the way to South Africa to present their opinions in a UN conference on racism, which started on August 31.
Actually, 500 youth delegates were invited by South African NGOs, but 800 showed up, according to spokesman Clayton Peters. They discussed topics like gender discrimination(성차별), slavery(노예제도) and the Middle East conflict(중동분쟁). The mood was tense.
Clarise Thomas, a 20-year-old student from Savannah, Georgia, and JR Ali, a 19-year-old British student from Leicester (both black) said they wanted reparations for slavery(노예제도 보상). “We want apologies to the whole black race - Caribbean blacks, African blacks, everybody,” said Ali. “We want compensation and we want recognition that slavery was a crime against humanity,” said Thomas.
Arturo Sanchez (22) from Mexico, wanted action on gender discrimination and “discrimination against youths(청소년차별)”.
On the issue of slavery, the United States and the Europeans have been avoiding African nations. They were both colonial powers and slave-trading nations for a long time and they’re now afraid to apologize for colonialism(식민주의) and slavery. They fear that admitting their crimes could lead to huge compensation claims(손해배상). Over the past decade, the United Nations has held conferences on several tough worldwide issues - human rights(인권), population growth(인구증가) and women’s equality(남녀평등), to name a few. The racism conference started late in comparison with others, but it has already become a big controversy. Slavery reparations and the Middle East conflict were the hottest issues for last week’s U.N. racism conference.
The conference boiled down to this: racism troubles every country and affects almost all aspects of life. Its roots dig into historical injustices, and there are major differences on how it can be tackled.