The occasional exchanges on ethnic relations in Guyana that one sometimes sees in the local media could benefit from the infusion of some basic principles. Such principles might also inform a dialogue that will hopefully be launched before long among the political parties in Guyana.
In his poem, “Listening to the Land”, Martin Carter wrote: “I bent down, kneeling on my knee, listening to the land; but all I heard was tongueless whispering.” In any discourse on race relations in Guyana, we should, of course, listen to the land, and listen to the hearts of the descendants of Amerindians, slaves, indentured labourers, Guyanese of diverse ancestry, their shared history of suffering, and their insistent quest for dignity and freedom.
In 1937, under the cloud of a Second World War, the historic Oxford Conference of Churches adopted a set of fundamental principles on race relations for subsequent ecumenical gatherings. The World Conference of Churches highlights these principles and we draw here upon its 1965 publication, Ecumenical Statements on Race Relations. The Oxford Conference recognized that a special problem of critical urgency in the world was that of the relations between peoples of different races. For Christians, they noted, the starting point is the affirmation that all human beings are, by birthright, children of God created in His image and therefore brothers and sisters to one another.
Each of the races of mankind, the Conference continued, has been blessed by God with distinctive and unique gifts. Each has made, and is destined to continue to make, distinctive and unique contributions to the enrichment of mankind. All share alike in the love, the concern, and the compassion of God. Each race is rightly grateful for its own heritage and possibilities.
The Oxford Conference articulated the following principles for incorporation in the sentiments and public policies of nations and communities:
1. The recognition of the value of every human being as a person.
2. The right of every person, whatever his or her race, colour or present status, to the conditions essential for life as a person, to education, to opportunity in his or her vocation, recreation and social intercourse.
3. Full participation in fellowship and leadership for members of a less advanced people as they prove their ability.
4. Active cooperation and fellowship among leaders of different racial groups.
5. Recognition by the community of its responsibility to less privileged persons of whatever race or group, not only for their assistance and protection but also for special educational and cultural opportunities.
6. The necessity of such economic and social change as shall open the way to full opportunity for persons of all races.
In the aftermath of racial discrimination and the Holocaust during the Second World War, the United Nations Charter of 1945 and the Universal Declaration of 1948 adopted guiding principles for the prevention of discrimination. In 1949, the United Nations issued a publication, “The Main Types and Causes of Discrimination” which offered the following statement of principles: “Since human beings are both alike and different, the principle of equality must be based upon some criterion. That criterion is to be found in an ethical concept, namely the idea of the dignity of the human person. Human dignity implies that human beings are to be treated as ends in themselves and not as mere means to an end. On the basis of this ethical concept of the dignity of the human person, the following principles are founded:
1. The principle of individual freedom, and
2. The principle of equality of all human beings before the law.”
In 1971, the United Nations published a ground-breaking global study on Racial Discrimination, written by Hernan Santa Cruz, one of the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Santa Cruz’s study, revised and updated in 1976, has a useful discussion of community action to eliminate racial prejudice and discrimination. Community action, he wrote, could include formal and informal education to combat existing or latent racial prejudice. Such education could be offered in the public schools, institutions of higher education, trade unions, and many other organizations active in the social field.
Informal community education to combat racial prejudice and discrimination, the study continued, could be disseminated through various media of communication, including the press, radio, television, films, recordings, magazines and popular pamphlets. Santa Cruz pertinently commented: “Experience has shown that such activity should not be limited to preaching tolerance and good will, and that it is most effective when it supplies factual information to help correct misconceptions, and provides information and specific recommendations for successful social action.”
Additional principles for fostering equitable race relations may be found in the Declaration and Programme of Action of the 2001 UN Durban Conference. We were fortunate to have had the experience of writing the first draft of the declaration and programme of action, as indeed of the preceding World Conferences of 1978 and 1983.
In drawing attention to the foregoing principles on race relations we hope to encourage further discussion among Guyanese of good faith and their leaders on the ethical, philosophical, political and policy foundations for achieving in practice the Guyanese dream of One Nation, One People, One Destiny.
