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The Durban Review Conference, currently being held in Geneva, opened on Monday 20 April with the controversial presence of the President of Iran Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His presence and fears of what he would say prompted several Western States, including the US, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Netherlands and Germany withdrawing from the Review Conference at the very last moment. Diplomats from many Western countries walked out during the speech delivered by President Ahmadinejad in which he accused Israel of establishing a ‘cruel and repressive racist regime’ on Palestinian territory.
In response to the mounting pressure around the Review Conference, and
departing from usual practice, States decided on the afternoon of 21
April to adopt the final outcome as it had been submitted by the
Preparatory Committee. In a press conference held at the end of that
day, Ms Navi Pillay expressed her satisfaction at the adoption and
urged States that had not attended the Review Conference to join the
efforts to fight racism.
Following the speech of President Ahmadinejad, the Minister of State
for Foreign Affairs of Norway conveyed his disagreement with Iran’s
statement referring to it as ‘incitement of hatred, spreading politics
of fear and promoting an indiscrimate message of intolerance.’ He
continued to say that in so doing, ‘the President of Iran chose to
place his country outside the margins of the Durban Declaration.’ UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed dismay at some States
boycotting the Review Conference and the speech made by President
Ahmadinejad. He stated that: ‘The Iranian President used his speech to
accuse, divide and even incite which is the opposite of what this
Conference seeks to achieve. This makes it significantly more difficult
to build constructive solutions to the very real problem of racism. The
Secretary-General urged all stakeholders to turn away from the message
of the President of Iran and work together to combat all forms of
racism. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms Navi Pillay also
stated her disagreement with the walk-out by several Western States and
deplored the messagedelivered by President Ahmadinejad. She condemned
the use of the Conference for ‘political grandstanding’. The High
Commissioner stated that the best response to such statements were for
other States ‘to reply and correct’. Both the Secretary-General and the
High Commissioner recalled that the General Assembly has rejected the
equation of Zionism with racism.
Despite the early adoption of the outcome document, the Review Conference will continue until Friday 24 April.
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