FORUM-ASIA has successfully hosted the Writeshop on Asian Civil Society Submission to the Outcome Document (OD) of the Durban Review Conference (DRC) 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand, from 8-9 January.

The Writeshop is a joint initiative of FORUM-ASIA and the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR).

The DRC will be held in Geneva from 20-24 April this year.
It was attended by eight participants, including Dignity International/Pusat Komas (Malaysia), Center for Migrant Advocacy (Philippines), Migrant Forum Asia (Philippines) and Jesuit Refugee Service, South East Asia Office (Bangkok). The Asia Pacific Women Law and Development (Chiang Mai) has also sent their inputs for the submissions.

Background

The 1st Asian Civil Society Workshop on DRC 2009 was held on 25 -26 February 2008 in Bangkok. The event brought together participants from different NGOs working on issues of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

The Final Statement, which was the outcome of the event, was submitted to the Secretariat of the Bureau of the Preparatory Committee (Prepcom) for submission to and consideration by the DRC Preparatory Committee, and its Inter-Sessional Open-Ended Inter-Governmental Working Group.

This Statement has also been used extensively as a lobby material during the 1st and 2nd substantive sessions of the Prepcom and in lobbying individual governments.
The 2nd substantive session of the Prepcom was convened on 6 – 17 October 2008.

More substantial results came out of this meeting, both from the government and civil society. A compilation of recommendations from governments, intergovernmental bodies, NGOs and other stakeholders was put together in a document now referred to as Compilation [A/CONF.211/PC/WG.2/CRP.1].