EUR: Diplomats seek to salvage controversial UN racism meet
22 Apr 2009 4:45 AM
GENEVA, April 21 AFP - UN officials and diplomats striving to salvage a major anti-racism conference after an anti-Israel speech by Iran's president on Tuesday hailed its final declaration as a fitting response to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's tirade.
Delegates to the UN conference on racism adopted a final declaration against racism, xenophobia and intolerance which UN human rights chief Navi Pillay described as an "answer" to Ahmadinejad's outburst. The speech triggered a mass walkout on the conference's first day.
"The fact that this document has been adopted by all but nine states is our answer, what I call success," said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
"I don't think that one state was able to detract from this document," she added.
Ahmadinejad was widely criticised after calling Israel a "racist" and "cruel" regime on Monday, prompting 23 European Union delegations to walk out in protest.
But delegates said his inflammatory speech had also strengthened delegates' resolve to adopt the declaration as soon as possible. It had been expected only on Friday.
"We couldn't allow our determination and consensus to be destroyed by isolated instances or intolerances and incitement to hatred as we witnessed yesterday," British ambassador Peter Gooderham told AFP.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the development showed that Ahmadinejad had "failed."
"The text was adopted, therefore he has failed," Kouchner told France 5 television station.
Ahmadinejad, who has previously called for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map, on Monday criticised the creation of a "totally racist government in occupied Palestine" in 1948, calling it "the most cruel and repressive racist regime."
Delegates from 23 European Union states walked out during the speech, and Western leaders issued a flurry of condemnation against Ahmadinejad's remarks.
Meanwhile, Iranian newspapers praised the speech, with government newspaper Iran headlining the story Cry for justice in the heart of Europe: Ahmadinejad angered Western racists.
But organisers and delegates rallied Tuesday to contain the fallout.
Kouchner told radio station Europe 1 that the conference was "not at all a failure but the beginning of a success."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that Ahmadinejad's speech was unexpected and outside the remit of the talks.
"While I appreciate his participation, what he did was out of the purpose of the conference and what we expected, what the international community expected," said Ban during a visit to Malta.
Other than the Czech Republic, which dropped out of the conference after Ahmadinejad's speech, Europeans delegations which walked out Monday returned to the conference Tuesday.
Australia, Canada, Israel, some EU countries and the United States had announced they would not take part in the meeting even before it opened.
The walkout mirrored the last such conference against racism held at Durban, South Africa, in 2001 when Israeli and US delegates walked out over comments by delegates equating Zionism with racism.
The Geneva meeting is meant to take stock of progress in fighting racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance since Durban. Pillay underlined recently that the goals set then had not been achieved.
The declaration assesses that progress and sets out a range of problems and more measures that need to be taken over 16 pages.
