Defamation of religion passages dropped from Durban II document
Excellent news from the UN, where threats by the European Union to join the US, Italy, Israel and Canada in boycotting April’s anti-racism conference, Durban II, have resulted in a victory over the OIC. Passages relating to “defamation of religions”, as well as perceived anti-semitic references to the Palestinian territories and Middle East, have been dropped from the meeting’s draft declaration.
Durban II may not turn out to be such a farce after all.
UPDATE: (March 19) Despite the big improvement in the draft document, there are still some “red lines crossed” . According to the American Jewish Committee’s useful “Durban II Countdown” website:
the Dutch, for instance, demand that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation be condemned, and the U.S. doesn’t want a full reaffirmation of the 2001 Durban Declaration, which accused Israel of racist practices.
The Dutch have submitted their own proposal which adds new language affirming the importance of free expression, and the inadmissability of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Good luck with that one, you Dutch.
Well, I have had a shit day, but this certainly is a high point!
Before you get too ecstatic marc, have a look at the OIC site. They are expressing “solidarity with the Sudanese people” in “this hardship which they pass through”. In other words they are putting two fingers up at the ICC, and supporting mass murderer Omar Hassan al-Bashir because he`s a Moslem, so arraigning him for crimes against humanity would somehow represent “double standards”. (I`m not making this up!!). I`m still depressed!!!
*cough* hypocrites *cough*
Now we just need to work on this here in the US. 🙁 Just got an email about this today, our organization is going to take a stand against it. We’ll see!