Category: Durban Review Conference

Israel rejects revised draft of Durban II statement, Haaretz, March 18, 2009
A senior Foreign Ministry source said Wednesday that Israel rejects the latest draft of the closing statement for the “Durban 2″ anti-racism conference, despite revisions aimed at dropping direct criticism of Israel.
While all direct references to Israel and the Israel-Palestinian conflict have been removed [...]

No Comments »

Criticism of Israel dropped from Durban II draft resolution, Haaretz, March 17, 2009
United Nations officials said Tuesday that Muslim-backed references to ‘defamation of religion’ and criticism of Israel have been dropped from a draft being prepared for next month’s world racism meeting.
Initial draft resolutions for the United Nations Durban II summit branded Israel as an [...]

No Comments »

The Palestinian BDS  movement (boycott, divestment and sanctions) has announced a parallel event to the Durban Review Conference.

BNC (Palestinian National BDS Committee) has organized the Israel Review Conference to take place in Geneva from 18 - 19 April, two days before the United Nations’ Durban Review Conference under the slogan “United Against Apartheid, Colonialism and [...]

No Comments »

German MP calls for Durban II boycott, Jerusalem Post, March 7, 2009
“Germany must boycott this anti-Semitic and anti-Western spectacle. Either together with its EU partners, or if necessary alone. We are not the fig leaf for Iran’s Islamist and anti-Semitic activities,” Christian Democratic Union MP Kristina Köhler said in a statement on Wednesday…According to the [...]

No Comments »

UN rights chief appeals for Durban 2, Jerusalem Post, March 2, 2009
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the April 20-25 conference has been disparaged in the media and attacked by a lobbying campaign of those who fear a repetition of the anti-Israel moves that marred the first racism conference in 2001.
“This is [...]

No Comments »

The US announced Friday that it would not attend the Durban Review Conference in April in Geneva.
After sending a delegation to “try to change the direction in which the Review Conference [wa]s heading”, the US decided that “the current text of the draft outcome document is not salvageable” and “[a] conference based on this text [...]

No Comments »

Human Rights Watch (HRW), the powerful New York based NGO, has undergone some important policy changes since playing an active role in the catastrophic NGO Forum at the UN’s 2001 Durban Conference on Racism. On November 13 2008, HRW’s Geneva Director Juliette de Rivero wrote to the Libyan chair of the Preparatory Committee for the [...]

No Comments »

NGO Monitor understands that the Swiss Mission in Geneva has invited Nord Sud XXI to join a NGO discussion about Durban to be held on Tuesday, November 18.  Not only is Nord Sud XXI a group that has given an award to a convicted French Holocaust denier (Roger Garaudy, in 2002) and other anti-Semites, but [...]

No Comments »

“WJC official: Jews must engage Durban II”
September 13, 2008, Jerusalem Post, Haviv Rettig
Unlike other Jewish NGOs which have chosen to avoid the preparatory meetings for the Durban Review Conference, Peleg Reshef, director of the World Jewish Congress’ World Jewish Diplomatic Corps, believes their participation may have a strong impact.
Referring to last month’s African Preparatory Meeting [...]

No Comments »

“UN to review Israel’s human rights track“

September 8, 2008, The Jerusalem Post, Tovah Lazaroff
On September 8, the United Nations announced that Israel’s human rights record will be evaluated this coming December by Nigeria, South Korea and Azerbaijan, as part of the Universal Periodic Review process. Israel has accepted this decision, in hopes that it will [...]

No Comments »