This is why some in civil society put little stake in declarations and plans of action the summits produce and subsequently ignore. Instead, NGOs are more concerned with the opportunity summits offer to meet like-minded souls from regions of the world other than their own and share experiences, aspirations, and techniques for wielding influence. However, after ten years of active participation in UN summits, the men and women of Nongovernmental organizations look as if they are performing at their peak. They have come, scout-like, prepared. NGOs usually know the issues better than the government all-purpose delegates. Now, after ten years of UN summits, NGOs have mastered the arts of focusing on select issues, presenting their views in news releases, press briefings, "approved" demonstrations, and lobbying delegates.

Roger Wareham, a lawyer, is a human rights activist who closely monitored regional and preparatory meetings for the WCAR, attending many preparatory and regional meetings. Another observer of what is called "the process," was Viola Plummer, of the New York-based Dec.12th Movement. She passed on her observations in meetings to NGOs and individuals in New York, discussed the NGOs's expectations for WCAR and the principal issues that NGOs would emphasize. There would be no more scatter shooting. At WCAR three issues would concern black Nongovernmental organizations representing black men and women: Reparations, recognition of the transAtlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity, and acknowledgement of the economic basis of slavery. (Many NGO members have said that anyone who begins talking about reparations with the premise that affected peoples want a handout is trying to evade the issue by throwing up a smoke screen.)

Essentially, blacks from the US-whether grass roots activists, or scholars-- came unified. They were linked, often through the Internet, by such groups as the Black Radical Congress and the National Black United FrontOne sidelight is the current terminology that has evolved; it seems to try to create common ground for black people world wide. In the US over the past 50 years, terms of identification have gone from colored and Negro, to black and African American. Here, "African and African Descendants Caucus" is the phrase in use. This enables, or is supposed to enable, connections among people with "African genes" whether they live in Africa, Europe, North America, Central America, or South America. The US withdrawal did nothing to throw Africans and African Descendants off-track. They saw the walkout as an avoidance tactic, a diversion to avoid once again dealing with the issue of race in a meaningful way. Plummer said, "the US's pulling out on Monday was a victory for us that we had not anticipated. We thought it would have taken the US longer to have them realize the third world was going to hold them accountable for their crimes. We in the US will continue to make them responsible for their crimes and we are sure that they will not withdraw from Washington."

No one would suggest that Tibetans aspiring to real independence are very concerned about African Descendants in the US's perennial struggles with the American criminal justice system and the allegedrage of the white male in America. Few elsewhere NGOs are gripped with the issue of indigenous peoples in Andean nations, the Pacific and North America. We are not yet in a one-issue-fits-all mode. NGOs are aware of each other's issues and they understand the linkages. And they all agree that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance are a pain in the neck.