United States seeks change in tenor and reshaping of upcoming World Conference Against Racism, the Durban Review Conference

The U.S. State Department sent a delegation to Geneva Feb. 16-19 for consultations about America’s possible involvement in the World Conference Against Racism, the Durban Review Conference.

The delegation was led by Mark Storella, Chargé d’Affaires for the US Mission in Geneva. The delegation included as private delegates, Betty King, the distinguished former Ambassador to ECOSOC and Felice Gaer, a leader in the human rights community who currently serves as Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

“We sent this delegation to work with countries that want to achieve a successful review conference that focuses on combating racism, racial discrimination and other forms of intolerance and to explore whether it is going to be possible to focus the Durban Review Conference on these serious issues. The United States had not previously participated in preparations for the Durban Review Conference because of our strong reservations about the direction of the conference, as the draft document singles out Israel for criticism, places unacceptable restrictions on freedom of expression under the guise of defaming religion, and calls for payment of reparations for slavery,” U.S. State Department Acting Deputy Department Spokesman Gordon Duguid said in a press release Friday Feb. 20.

In Geneva the U.S. delegation met with the delegations of thirty other nations. The United States is seeking “to explore whether there exists the possibility for progress in re-shaping the document and tenor of the discussions,” Mr. Duguid’s statement to the press said. The American delegation also met with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay.

The United States remains ambivalent about whether or not it will participate in the conference scheduled to take place in Geneva from April 20-24, 2009.

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February 21, 2009 - Posted by almasakinnewsagency | Al-Masakin, Durban Review Conference, ECOSOC, Journalism, Media, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, U.S. State Department, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay, US Mission in Geneva, USA, World Conference against