Durban Review Summary: July 20, 2008
”UN’s New Rights Chief Must Counter Global Assault Against Individual Liberty”
July 18, 2008, UN Watch, Press Release
In her capacity as United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Durban-born South African judge, Vanethem Pillay, will also serve as secretary-general of the 2009 Durban Review Conference. Perhaps she will manage to uphold the values of the Durban Review Conference and prevent its deterioration into a forum for the disproportionate demonization of Israel. As stated by Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, “The preparatory sessions and the latest draft declaration for Durban II-a process chaired by Libya, with Iran as vice-chair-shows alarming signs that we are in for a replay of the worst excesses of 2001 […] Pillay has a singular responsibility, and hopefully the credibility, to ensure that the world anti-racism effort is not once again hijacked by the forces of hatred.”
“Fanning the Flames of Racism”
July 19, 2008, The Christian Post (reprinted in Townhall.com), Ken Connor
In this article, Connor claims that a conference dedicated to evaluating the implementation of a Declaration of Principles that barely addresses the world’s most severe cases of racism, such as the Holocaust or the Serbian and Rwandan genocides, as adopted at the 2001 World Conference against Racism, is unlikely to effectively fight racism worldwide. Consequently, “The upcoming United Nations Durban Review Conference in Durban, South Africa (sic)-billed as an international effort to achieve racial reconciliation-is likely to make a mockery of any bona fide attempt to overcome racial discrimination.” Connor also believes that the Durban Review Conference’s agenda may be set by the United Nation’s Human Right’s Council, which has, in the two years of its existence, condemned Israel 19 times.
