UN Human Rights invited to Trinidad

People of Indian Origin in the Caribbean, Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe was the theme of an all-day conference held at St John’s University, in Queens, New York on Saturday, March 20, 2004. Sponsored by the University’s Centre on Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) and co-sponsored by the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), GOPIO-New York and the Guyanese East Indian Civic Association (GEICA), the daylong conference was inaugurated on Friday, March 19th at the World’s Fair Marina Banquet Hall. Former Trinidad and Tobago prime minister Basdeo Panday was the Guest of Honour and former Fiji PM Mahendra Chaudhry delivered the keynote address. The conference was organised into four sessions.

The conference discussed the human rights experiences of people of Indian origin (PIO) living in different countries outside of India with significant PIO populations. These countries and regions included Fiji, USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana. According to Ashook Ramsaran, GOPIO Secretary General and conference co-organiser, the conference focused on the nature, causes and elements of human rights abuses as they affect Indians living outside of India. “We examined those countries and regions where the experiences of Indian assimilation have been both harmonious and contentious,” Ramsaran said. “We are pleased with the interest and support that St John’s University has provided for this global forum to address a crucial issue of concern to over 20 million people of Indian origin living outside of India.

“There is no doubt that this conference has indeed advanced the discussions on an important subject at this critical time in the history of the Indian diaspora,” Ramsaran continued. The conference organisers brought scholars, rights advocates, PIO political leaders, and policy makers the world over to examine the causal nature, extent and consequences of such abuses and to address some of the underlying issues therein. “The lessons so learned,” Prakash Singh, GEICA’s director and conference co-organiser, “can be a yardstick for other groups in tackling this ubiquitous problem now simmering in many regions of the world.”

GOPIO has been involved in the human rights issues of PIOs since its inception in 1989 at the First Global Convention of People of Indian Origin. The primary motivation for the first convention was the dismissal of the duly elected Indian dominated government in Fiji. GOPIO had filed with the United Nations cases of human rights violations of PIOs in Fiji and Sri Lanka in 1991 and 1992 respectively.

“Although we have seen some improvements in the PIO human rights issues in the later part of 1990s, rights violations of people of Indian origin continue to be a major issue,” said Dr Thomas Abraham, Chairman of GOPIO. In his keynote address, Mahendra Chaudhry has said that racism is not less than terrorism and in this day in age, people often fail to recognise that racism is a form of terrorism. “People usually associate racism with just one race feeling more superior than the another, and forget to think that it is a form of terrorism,” said Chaudhry.

“The extreme elements are responsible in promoting paramount of one race over the other,” Chaudhry added. He has also said that there is suffering in silence and that these experiences should be known. Chaudhry, who made a special trip to the conference, has been fighting violation of political rights of Indo-Fijians in Fiji. “Fiji Indians suffered indenture and now they are suffering by widespread discrimination and violation of political rights,” Chaudhry said. Basdeo Panday, former PM and leader of the United National Congress in Trinidad and Tobago, in his keynote address at the conference said that the Indian Diaspora would not be able to help the Indians living in Trinidad, Suriname, Guyana and other countries because the Diaspora is not well organised yet, although some initial progress has been done by GOPIO.

“The Indian Diaspora indeed is certainly big and it is very difficult to organise and make it work together because of the size,” Panday said. Panday complimented GOPIO for bringing the consciousness of the Indian government about the powerful Indian Diaspora. Indo-Trinidadian Dr Christendat Mahadeo from the University of Illinois said that Indo-Caribbeans should actively participate in the political process and take more civic responsibility.

The conference concluded with a plenary session on Sunday, March 21st, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel where the delegates passed resolutions including the following: Resolution on Trinidad and Tobago: “Whereas all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago are duly entitled to equal justice and freedom as provided under United Nations charters, and whereas there exists in Trinidad and Tobago a heightened state of atrocities stemming from abduction and kidnapping of persons of Indian origin in Trinidad and Tobago, and whereas there is deep concern that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago is not effectively dealing with this crisis which continues to terrorise persons of Indian origin in Trinidad and Tobago, we call on the Government of Trinidad and Tobago take immediate actions to bring an end to the abuse of human rights against persons of Indian origin in Trinidad and Tobago; and further, we call on the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to immediately file a report with the United Nations International Human Rights Commission detailing what direct actions the Government of Trinidad and Tobago has taken to bring a cessation of the abduction and kidnapping perpetuated against of persons of Indian origin in Trinidad and Tobago.

Resolution to Government of India: “Whereas all citizens are duly entitled to equal justice and freedom as provided under United Nations charters, and whereas persons of Indian origin living in various countries outside of India are faced human rights abuses in various forms, we call on the Government of India to closely and actively monitor the human rights abuses perpetuated against persons of Indian origin living in various countries outside of India, and to take all necessary measures and seek appropriate remedy to put an end to those abuses.”