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World Jewish News
U.S., Australia to boycott Durban II anti-racism meet
20.04.2009
The State Department says the Obama administration will boycott a United Nations racism conference next week over language about Israel and the
West in the meeting's final document.
"The Obama administration will with regret boycott a UN conference on racism next week over objectionable language in the meeting's final document that could single out Israel for criticism and restrict freespeech," the State Department said Saturday.
Earlier Saturday, State Department Spokesman Robert Wood said that despite improvements from an earlier draft, the changes in the final text do not address U.S. concerns of anti-Israel and anti-Western bias. The administration had lobbied hard for more revisions so that it could participate.
Concern is high that the April 20 to 25 conference in Geneva may descend into heated debate over Israel that marred the last such gathering eight years ago, especially since Iran's hardline president - who has called for Israel's destruction - will attend.
The United Nations said it organized the forum to help heal the wounds from its last such conference, in Durban, South Africa. The United States and Israel walked out of the 2001 conference after Arab states sought to define Zionism as racist.
Australia and the Netherlands joined Israel and Canada on Sunday among the other countries not attending the politically charged conference because of fears of a repeat of the "Israel-bashing" at the last conference.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said his country had already expressed strong concerns when the 2001 Declaration "singled out Israel and the Middle East."
"Regrettably, we cannot be confident that the Review Conference will not again be used as a platform to air offensive views, including anti-Semitic viewsm," Smith said.
Immediately after the U.S. boycott was announced, Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said the group was deeply dismayed by the decision.
"This decision is inconsistent with the administration's policy of engaging with those we agree with and those we disagree with," she said.
"By boycotting Durban, the U.S. is making it more difficult for it to play a leadership role on UN Human Rights Council as it states it plans to do. This is a missed opportunity, plain and simple."
Hours earlier, Human Rights Watch appealed for the U.S. to go, saying it
should stand with the victims of racism.
Juliette de Rivero of Human Rights Watch said that without Washington there, the meeting could lack diplomatic gravitas.
"For us it's extremely disappointing and it's a missed opportunity, really, for the United States," she said.
"If the U.S. fails to participate, it will disappoint many who invested hope in the Obama administration's commitment to engage internationally to protect human rights."
Several European Union members also share U.S. reservations about the possibility that the conference, which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will address on Monday, will be dominated by criticism of Israel.
The Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said the declaration prepared for the conference had addressed many concerns within the bloc, with references to Israel, the Middle East, and religious defamation removed from the latest draft agreed on Friday.
"Negotiations on the text are [indeed] closed, and the most controversial paragraphs are changed. But there are still several member states of the EU that are not decided yet," said Czech foreign ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Opletalova.
"We are in touch with them and there will be a decision on a common position before the conference starts."
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he held talks on Saturday with his counterparts in the Czech Republic, France, Netherlands, Denmark and Spain about whether the EU should take part.
"Together, we have not reached a decision," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a Social Democrat party event. "I expect a German decision on participation in the conference at the end of the weekend."
Britain said on Saturday it planned to send a delegation but not a high-level official.
"I can confirm that we will be attending the conference. We are sending a delegation which will be led by our ambassador to the UN in Geneva," a foreign ministry spokesman said.
Ahmadinejad is one of only a handful of heads of state who have confirmed they will attend the conference, and the only top representative of a major power.
The United Nations also expects 32 ministers from countries including Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Norway to take part.
Diplomats on Friday reached an agreement on a declaration for the conference on racism, which added to the pressure on Washington and Brussels to decide whether to attend.
The 16-page text omits references to Israel, Zionism, the Middle East conflict and other divisive issues that have made Western powers shy away from Durban II.
Источник: Haaretz
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