Alfred Moses, Chair of UN Watch, delivered the keynote address at the UN Watch international conference for Jewish community leaders, “What to Do About Durban II,” Geneva, May 27, 2008. Click here for full text
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Archive for May, 2008
Libyan GONGO North South 21 — a “Government Operated NGO”, or front organization — helped organize a joint letter to the Libyan head of the Durban II planning committee, demanding the UN allocate space for a “NGO Forum” adjacent to the conference, as well as funding to fly in activists from around the world, and castigated UN officials who dared to disagree. North South 21 hosts the letter on its dedicated website page lobbying for the NGO Forum. See full text below.
LETTER BY LIBYAN FRONT ORGANIZATION NORTH SOUTH 21 AND ALLIES
Source: http://nordsud21.ch/08-05-23%20NGO%20Letter%20to%20Chair%20of%20Prep%20Com.pdf
SIGN LETTER IN SUPPORT OF THE DURBAN REVIEW
CONFERENCE AND NGO PARTICIPATION
Geneva, Switzerland, 26 May 2008
H.E. Najat Al-Hajjaji
Chairperson of the Preparatory Committee of the Durban Review
Conference
Dear Mme Chairperson,
We are writing this letter to convey through you, to the Members of the Preparatory Committee, our strong desire as Non-Governmental Organizations and anti-racist movements to contribute to the successful preparations for the Durban Review Conference in 2009.
We believe that given the upsurge in racist practices in different parts of the world and the little attention given to the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action since its adoption, this Review Conference is greatly needed and must be given maximum support. In order for the Durban Review Conference to succeed, a dynamic partnership is needed between the UN, Governments and civil society in support of the Conference s aims and objectives. We wish to emphasize that strong mobilization of Non-Governmental Organizations and the holding of an NGO Forum have been an indispensable part of every major UN conference or special session since the landmark Stockholm Environment Conference in 1972.
Also at the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, the NGO Forum was an important catalyst for many victim groups to come together, network, interact and build support for the work against racism and discrimination. We are deeply concerned over the failure by the Conference Secretariat
to provide timely information and invitations to NGOs to participate in the meetings of the Preparatory Committee despite the unequivocal decisions taken by the Preparatory Committee that NGOs accredited to the World Conference Against Racism shall be invited. We are equally concerned
over recent remarks by representatives of the UN Secretariat which tend to discourage the holding of an NGO Forum at the Review Conference, contrary to UN tradition.
We strongly believe in the necessity of a vigorous public mobilization effort for the Durban Review Conference. This includes efforts by Non-Governmental Organizations, victim groups and anti-racist
movements who must receive the full support of both the Preparatory Committee and the United Nations Secretariat, in particular the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In the view of the undersigned it is necessary that a positive decision is taken to enable civil society to fully contribute to a successful Durban Review Process and that financial resource are allocated to support the holding of an NGO Forum in the immediate vicinity of the official Conference site.
Signed by (in chronological order):
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
International Youth and Student Movement for the United Nations (ISMUN)
Interfaith International
Comite International pour le Respect et l’Application de la
Charte Africaine des Droits de l Homme et des Peuples (CIRAC)
Action Internationale Paix et Developpment Grands Lacs (AIPD-GLJ)
December 12th Movement
The Aldet Centre, Saint Lucia
African Canadian Legal Clinic
North-South XXI
IUS Primi Viri
Indian Movement Tupa Amaru
World Peace Council
International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (EAFORD)
Mouvement Socio-cultural pour le development des
Mbororo (MBOSCUDA)
Global Rights
Agence des cites pour la cooperation Nord-Sud
Comission Africaine des Promoteurs a le Sante des droits de l’Homme (CAPSDH)
Espacio Afroamericano International
Culture of Afroindigenous Solidarity
Swedish Centre Against Racism Afro-Swedish National Association
National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (NCOBRA)
Guinee Development (GUIDE)
Mouvement de la Paix (France)
Chinese Canadian National Council
National Anti-Racism Council of Canada
Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic
OCAPPROCE
International Coordination des ONG Africaines des droit de l’Homme (CONGAF)
Academie africaine pour la Paix (ACAP)
Urban Alliance on Race Relations
South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario
Espacio Afroamericano
Swedish-Somali Institute
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
Zimbabwe Exiles Forum
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Legal Resources Centre
Wendy Isaack
MISASWD
FIDA-UGANDA
Kituo Chakatiba
CLC-SOUTH AFRICA
Citizens Governance Initiatives
SAIFAC
WILDAF
Ehahrdp/net
Alliances for Africa
NCC, National Counseling Centre
Center for Minority Rights Development
Women of Law Association
ASADHO/DRC
Foundation for Human Rights Initiative
FHRI Africa Leadership and Governance Institute
NOON Center for Legal Consultation and Human Rights.
A one-sided UN inquiry against Israel from 2006 is now being revived. The spokesman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights today announced as follows:
An independent High Level Fact-Finding Mission by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Professor Christine Chinkin, of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the London School of Economics, will visit Beit Hanoun during their mission to the occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza on 27 and 28 May.
The High Level Fact-Finding Mission to Beit Hanoun was established by the United Nations Human Rights Council in November 2006 after an Israeli attack resulted in the deaths of 19 people, including seven children. Archbishop Tutu and Professor Chinkin will enter Gaza from Egypt and, in addition to visiting Beit Hanoun itself, are scheduled to hold a range of meetings in Gaza, including with survivors and witnesses of the attack on 8 November 2006. The mission will submit a final report to the September session of the Human Rights Council.
The terms of this 2006 mandate presume Israel’s guilt and omit little details such as the Hamas rocket attacks from the areas to which Israel returned fire. Those were just some of the reasons why Professor Irwin Cotler, former Justice Minister of Canada, turned down a request to join the mission, as he exlained in the Boston Globe here.
Since 2006, many things have happened — including in Beit Hanoun, which was already the subject of a mission by no less than High Commissioner Louise Arbour, shortly after the incident. For one thing, in June 2007 Palestinians were shooting at patients in the Beit Hanoun hospital. Will the the Tutu mission, whose terms are dictated by the Islamic-dominated Human Rights Council, consider those victims — about whom no UN commissioner has ever reported? Don’t bet on it.
Another thing. This would seem to be the first time that UN officials are entering Gaza via Egypt. But if the UN now formally acknowledges the geographic reality that Gaza also has a border with Egypt, can they sustain their curious position that Israel, after having evacuated every last Israeli soldier and civilian from the territory, still “occupies” it?
At the initiative of the Cuban government, the UN Human Rights Council will convene on May 23, 2008 for an emergency “special session” to address rising food prices. Several EU states also added their names to the Cuban request.
The world food crisis is certainly an urgent issue, but few expect this meeting to achieve anything other than provide a platform for attacks against the West and free markets. All of which will distract the council from matters it could more suitably address, starting with violations that have a clear victim, perpetrator and remedy. But the countries that lock people up without fair trials prefer to change the subject.
And if “the right to food” were really their concern, why are council members failing to hold an emergency session on Myanmar’s unconscionable denial of that right for millions of its starving, post-cyclone citizens?
When this question was posed yesterday to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the reply was that “the Council had a very full programme. . .so it was a pretty packed schedule at the moment and it would be difficult to fit it in.”
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