Resurgence of religious and race prejudices is alarming, UN panel says

Issues of intolerance, prejudice and discrimination worldwide are now so profound that they are threatening to disrupt collective efforts to promote peace and development in the new century, the United Nations chief information and communication official said today.

Moderating the first briefing in 2004 for members of UN non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Under-Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor said, "We are seeing an alarming resurgence of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and racism in many parts of the world today.

"They are distinct phenomena with many different manifestations, but they also share common roots that grow out of ignorance, poverty, violence and the irrational fear of The Other," he added.

The topic of the briefing was "Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and Racism: New Perspectives on Old Menaces."

Hate crimes are on the rise in urban areas in an "atmosphere of intolerance and violence wilfully exacerbated by fundamentalist rhetoric and the backlash of xenophobia in both North and South," Mr. Tharoor said.

The United Nations is and must continue to be a leading force in combating intolerance worldwide, he said. The organization has overseen the painstaking creation and monitoring of binding international agreements and conventions establishing the principles of non-discrimination and equality without distinction to race, ethnic group, culture and religion.

He quoted Secretary-General Kofi Annan as having said earlier this month: "The United Nations, for its part, must reject all forms of racism and discrimination. Only in so doing, clearly and consistently, will it be true to its Charter and to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to people of all creeds and colours striving for their dignity."

In addition, Mr. Tharoor said, everyone has the responsibility to recognize and systematically fight "these insidious and corrosive forces" and prevent their spread.

Although the UN did not intend to give the impression that the problems could be treated purely from a psychological point of view, he said, a panel of psychoanalysts had been invited to the briefing to share from that perspective because of their particular art of knowing, healing and integrating.

Representing different backgrounds, the panellists were Dr. Afaf Mahfouz, Egyptian-born chair of the Committee on the United Nations of the International Psychological Association, Dr. Salman Akhtar, Indian-born Muslim professor at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pa., and lecturer on psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Ira Brenner, a Jewish-American psychoanalyst and author, and Dr. Forrest Hamer, an African-American psychologist and poet, at the University of California at Berkeley.

Video of the panel discussion [1hr 29min]