Durban II: the lines are moving in the right direction

After Israel, Canada, Italy and the United States, the German minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, clearly came out in favour of withdrawing the EU from this conference, unless there were substantial changes to the preparatory documents. His Swedish counterpart, Carl Bildt, confirmed that the EU had laid down some very clear “red lines”. “Were they to be overstepped, we will not be able to participate.” In conclusion, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country is currently presiding the EU, said: NdT. Missing quotation

The Russian Yuri Boychenko, who is in charge of the working group responsible for drafting the final declaration of Durban II, has succeeded with help from Egypt, Belgium and Norway, in coming up with a new text removing the main subjects of controversy between the West, the Arab-Muslim world and African countries.

The document no longer refers to the concept of defamation of religions. Neither does it any longer refer to Israel or include earlier statements that had been considered anti-Semitic.

However, the new draft declaration is not yet the final document. The conference preparatory committee will meet on 6^th April to finalise the document that will still have to be approved by all the States.

Haim Musicant, CRIF’s General Director, had expressed the wish the “France, the home of human rights, should act responsibly in due time and refrain from supporting the masquerade that is in the making”. He seems to have been heard by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who said: “It would be unacceptable for the struggle against racism to be tarnished by introducing considerations that are contrary to its purpose: any expression of racism, any reference to the notion of defamation of religions, because this concept is incompatible with the freedom of expression and conscience (…), any stigmatisation of Israel as such (…). We will not tolerate the excesses that happened in Durban in 2001 (…). I would like the 27 Member States of the European Union to jointly adopt a deadline date to evaluate the improvements obtained in the coming weeks and to jointly agree on a decision by all the members of the Union to participate or to withdraw from the Geneva meeting.”