United Nations

The international convention seeking to protect rights of migrant workers that comes into force in early 2003 is path-breaking in several ways. It seeks to establishes international standards of treatment for migrant workers and their families.

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The promotion of minority identity requires special measures intended to facilitate the maintenance, reproduction and further development of the culture of minorities. The issue is not one of conflicts between rights or of discrimination, but of generating confidence among minorities about the protection of their identity.

The death of 20 children in Assam following the administration of vitamin A supplementation as part of a UNICEF-aided campaign throws open once again an old debate in public health policy. It exposes the dismal lack of coordination at various levels on issues and programmes which are vital to the health and lives of vulnerable populations. It is also an ironic pointer to the inertia in policy-making such that the state fails to reckon with the positive outcomes of socioeconomic development, however small, over the decades.

After 30 years of the adoption of the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, incidence of racism, racial discrimination, religious intolerance and ethnic violence are on the increase at a national, regional and global level. It is in this context that the holding of Third World Conference against Racism has to be seen and the prospects it offers analysed.