November 14th, 2008 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category: Durban Conference, Durban Review Conference, NGO Monitor

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 it is a leader of the global campaign for a “NGO Forum” at the 2009 Durban II conference, by which it seeks to replicate the 2001 hatefest. 
 
A number of leading Swiss newspapers have documented how Nord Sud XXI is a front organization for the anti-Semitic Moammar Kadhafi Human Rights Prize.  According to Le Temps, “The Kadhafi Prize [for Human Rights] is managed in Geneva by North-South 21, which claims to be an organization for the defense of human rights. . . . It is worth noting that North-South 21 does not want to mention the financial investment of Tripoli in the Geneva center. The organization issues many periodicals and other publications but none mentions the name of the provider of funds...” See “Un deuxième spectacle autour du Prix Kadhafi,” Le Temps, 30 août 2000.  See also “Les Noirs demandent réparation pour l’esclavage,” Le Temps, 7 août 2001 (describing North-South XXI as “an NGO installed in Geneva and tied to Libya” and discussing a symposium “ordered and financed by Libya through North-South XXI.”)

Nord Sud XXI often seeks to disguise and hide its Libyan connections – as in a recent letter to the UN here – but in other places they admit it.  For example: “Nord-Sud XXI had been mandated to manage the Khaddafi Prize for years, as confirmed by Ahmad Soueissi, Nord-Sud’s managing director.” Neue Zurcher Zeitung, June 25, 2006. Indeed, the prize’s own website admits the connection:  “The [Kadhafi] Prize has other organizations such as the Geneva-based Society of North-South -21 for cultural dialogue…”  Qaddafi was never known for his consistency.

In other words, there is no doubt that Nord Sud XXI is part of (or identical to) the Kadhadi Prize organization, (to follow the details, it is often necessary to look for multiple spellings of the Libyan dictator’s name.) And there is also no doubt of the group’s hateful actions, which were documented exhaustively in this report by UN Watch, and in a recent Azure essay.  Operating under the name of “Nord Sud XXI,” it has been leading the global lobbying campaign for a “NGO Forum” hatefest at Durban II - see timeline here.
 
All of which leads to serious questions concerning the role of the Swiss government in courting this notorious GNGO (governmental NGO)?
After Qaddafi’s son Hannibal was arrested in Geneva this summer for violently abusing his servants – and then received the full backing of Libya — why is the Swiss government now granting legitimacy to one of this regime�s most notorious propaganda organizations? More to the point, why are the Swiss inviting a group that celebrates convicted Holocaust deniers to a planning meeting for the “World Conference Against Racism”? Perhaps the Geneva version of Durban, with Swiss government involvement, will be as hatefilled as the 2001 session, or worse?

NGO Monitor
18 November 2008