• Shaping the agenda of the Conference;
• Ensuring the meaningful involvement of civil rights groups in the United States, Afro-Latino groups throughout the Americas and the Dalits of South Asia; and
• Creating a platform during the Conference for voicing personal experiences of racial discrimination. (Click here to learn more about the special forum and read the stories voiced by participants.)

In January 2000, IHRLG brought 25 leaders from around the world, influential in government, international organizations, national institutions and the non-governmental sector, to Bellagio, Italy to define what the content and practical outcomes of the World Conference should be. The Bellagio Consultation Report became the focal document used by Conference leaders and organizers in setting the Conference agenda. To prepare NGOs for effective involvement in Conference processes, IHRLG published a mutli-lingual guide to participating in the Conference, entitled Combating Racism Together. We distributed over 2,000 guides to individuals, community groups and human rights organizations in over 50 countries.

We also coordinated a series of consultations in the United States between US civil rights organizations and UN officials (including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights), conducted US leadership trainings, and convened an Afro-Latino consultation in Costa Rica to help groups prepare to articulate their concerns at the Regional Preparatory Conference in Chile. IHRLG also facilitated a roundtable on race and poverty and a dialogue among representatives of the African slave-descendent communities in the Americas during the Chile Preparatory Conference.

A highlight of the World Conference, IHRLG's special forum on comparative experiences of racism —VOICES— brought together individuals from 18 countries to voice their experience of racial discrimination, and to drive home the reality that racism exists in every society, every country and every region of the world. Return to the home page of our website to view our online video presentation of the forum.

For more information about IHRLG involvement in the 2001 World Conference and our VOICES forum contact info@hrlawgroup.org.