opening speeches

How do the organizers establish equivalence between different "forms of racism or discrimination"? How do they suggest that the myriad "cases" discussed under this heading form part of the same problem?

The conference started 20 minutes ago with a short video called "Voices." Here is a list of the clips the compose the video:

an excerpt from a speech by Martin Luther King
an suit-wearing African-American in Maryland, who was stopped on the highway, based on a policy of searching all African-Americans for drugs
a Zimbabwean in South Africa
an aborigine in Australia
a Roma woman in Ostrava
a speech by Nelson Mandela in 1990
a dark-skinned businessman (?) in Ethiopia
Githu Muigai, special rapporteur, racism and xenophobia
Khallid Hussain, a Bengali (?) in ???
Gailer Romana (?), an Afro-descendant in provincial Colombia
Fakteh Luna Zamani, an Azerbaijani Iranian complaining about linguistic discrimination
Al-Shaymaa John Kwegyir, an albino in ??? African country
Doreen Lawrence in London, talking about the murder of "Stephen," suspected of being a gang member

Flags are often shown in the video, although the countries in which they are set are not always clearly identified. Soft background music, and a UNHCR logo at the end.

[Racism, a universal problem that is the same everywhere?]


This was followed by a speech by Stephane Hessel
from the introduction:
Stephane Hessel, member of French resistance, was in Buchenwald and Dora concentration camps
helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
close to Pierre Mendès-France
created the Association for the Training of African and Malagassi workers, 1962
member of various French human rights councils
(http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%C3%A9phane_Hessel)

SH talks about "la famille humaine" and calls upon delegates to leave petty squabbles aside
complains about Buish presidency


[Racisme, discrimination, génocide : même problème, même combat ?]


Next speaker: a Tutsi survivor of the Rwandan genocide (didn't catch the name)
talks about genocide as the result of a process of dehumanization:
Jews = rats
Tutsi = snakes, cockroaches

the only thing that binds us together is our common humanity

[Obviously, those opposed to "racism" need to stress "humanity" as the only common identity]

Next: Gay MacDougal
Thinks Durban-1 was great, established new civil society networks
Racism includes “denial of cultural rights or ancestral lands”
“every person affected by racism has a story that should be heard”
Quotes from declaration of Durban-1 “Voices” program, which states that the authors “stand for everyone [!] suffering discrimination” [imprecise quote]

Stephane Hessel has final word, applauds Obama’s election