House Committee Approves Resolution Seeking to Prevent UN Anti-Racism Conference from Devolving into Israel-Bashing Forum
July 28, 2008
On July 24, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved by unanimous consent a resolution that calls on the President, Secretary of State, UN Secretary General and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to take steps to prevent a UN conference on racism planned for next year from degenerating into a forum for promoting anti-Israel rhetoric and anti-Semitism. The resolution, H. Res. 1361, was introduced by Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) and is co-sponsored by a group of 21 bipartisan legislators. The resolution has yet to be sent to the House floor for debate.
US Walked Out of 2001 Conference Over Anti-Israel Language
The 2009 UN meeting will review progress toward implementing commitments made at the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism that was held in Durban, South Africa. The US delegation walked out of the 2001 conference because, according to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, “…you do not combat racism by conferences that produce declarations containing hateful language, some of which is a throwback to the days of ‘Zionism equals racism;’ or supports the idea that we have made too much of the Holocaust; or suggests that apartheid exists in Israel; or that singles out only one country in the world--Israel--for censure and abuse.”
Voted Against Review Conference Proposal, Funding
In April, US Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad noted that the General Assembly had voted to convene a “Durban Review Conference” next year, with the UN Human Rights Council responsible for preparatory work. He stated that the United States had voted against this decision “because we do not believe there will be a meaningful review of any of the problematic aspects of the original Durban Conference, and that therefore the expenditure of any UN funds on preparatory meetings or the ‘review’ conference itself would be a colossal and irresponsible waste of such funds.” Khalilzad pointed out that the United States had voted against adoption of the UN’s entire 2008-2009 regular budget at the end of last year in part because it included funding for the Durban review conference.
US Boycotting Preparatory Process, Withholding Funding, Plans Not to Attend
The United States has not participated in any of the preparatory events for the 2009 conference, which is scheduled to take place from April 20-24 in Geneva, Switzerland. The United States is also withholding a portion of its 2008 UN regular budget dues in an amount equivalent to the US share of the Human Rights Council’s expenses, including financing for the preparatory process for the review conference that is being administered by the Council. Khalilzad said that the United States has no plans to participate in the rest of the preparatory process “unless it is proven that the conference will not be used as a platform for anti-Semitic behavior.” Also in April, the State Department announced that there is “no reason at this point why the United States should participate in the meeting itself.”
Resolution Details Criticism of 2001 Conference
The resolution adopted in committee earlier this week notes that, despite recognizing the Holocaust and increased levels of anti-Semitism, the official declaration adopted by member states at the 2001 Durban conference “highlighted the ‘plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupation’, and in so doing singled out one regional conflict for discussion in a biased way, and wrongly branded Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as racist.” The resolution also finds that the conference’s “achievements were overshadowed and diminished as some participants in the conference, in particular during the Non-Governmental Organization Forum…misused human rights language to promote hate, anti-Semitism, incitement, and divert the focus of the conference from problems within their own countries to a focus on Israel, leading the conference to be discredited.”
Notes Certain Conference Achievements
However, the resolution’s first operative paragraph acknowledges that the conference “marked an important recognition of the historic wounds caused by slavery, colonialism, and related ongoing racism and racial discrimination, including the recognition of the transatlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity, and that people of African descent, people of Asian descent, and indigenous peoples who were victims of these acts continue to face discrimination and marginalization as a direct consequence.”
Urges Governments to Condition Support for Review Conference
The resolution commends the US Government, as well as France, Canada, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, for declaring an intention not to participate in the Durban review conference if it “promotes hate, undermines human rights standards, and damages the credibility of the United Nations itself.” The resolution also encourages all UN member states to condition any support for the conference process “on the adherence to established human rights standards and on the rejection of an agenda that incites hatred against any group in the guise of criticism of a particular government.”
Calls for Diplomatic Efforts to Avoid Encore of Durban Conference
In addition, the resolution calls on the President to encourage other world leaders not to participate in the Durban review conference unless the UN and UN member states take concrete steps to ensure the rejection of “any effort to inject anti-Semitism, hatred, and discrimination” into the conference proceedings. The resolution also calls on the Secretary of State to urge other governments, “especially Pakistan as the chair of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and Egypt as the head of the African Group [of UN member states],” to take “prompt and effective” action to prevent a repeat of the 2001 Durban conference. Further, H. Res. 1361 calls on the administration to communicate with foreign governments the concerns raised by Congress and to report to Congress on the steps it has taken, and the actions taken by American allies, to address congressional concerns.
UN Leaders Encouraged to Help Conference Achieve Stated Goal
Lastly, the resolution calls on the UN Secretary General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to help ensure a successful conference. Specifically, the resolution calls on Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to personally intervene to refocus the review conference process on its stated goal of reviewing efforts by member states to implement their commitments to eliminate racial discrimination, intolerance, and all forms of hatred. The High Commissioner for Human Rights was called upon to play a similar role and to encourage member states on the preparatory committee—the Human Rights Council, on which the US has not sought membership—to return to a practice of consensus-based decision-making. The Secretary General was also called on to publicly urge the Council to “adhere to its mandate and to the high responsibility and expectations placed on it.”
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