The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, convened the Durban Review Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, April 20-24, 2009 to evaluate progress towards the goals set at the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban, South Africa. 

At preparatory meetings in 2008 and 2009 for the so-called Durban II conference, many of the same actors that brought about the discrediting of the 2001 World Conference in Durban again sought to advance their agenda to focus on and demonize Israel.

European countries worked to remove overt references to and accusations against Israel. While EU intervention resulted in the removal of many of the egregious sections from the draft document by March 2009, problems persisted.  Most glaringly, the text of the document still "reaffirms" the 2001 Durban Declaration, which is unacceptable in its implication that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is racist.

Concluding that the Durban II conference was illegitimate and beyond salvage, in the months leading up to Durban II, ADL had called on the international community to stay away from Geneva.  Concerned about efforts to misuse a human rights mechanism for the inappropriate branding of Israel as a perpetrator of racism, first Canada and then Israel, the United States, Italy, Germany, Poland, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands announced they would not participate in the conference. 

Concerns Realized

At the opening session of the conference, the concerns of these countries were realized, when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took the podium and delivered an incendiary anti-Israel and anti-Semitic speech, deriding Israel as "illegitimate and "criminal" and blaming Israel, the West and "world Zionism" for the world's ills.

Ahmadinejad, who denies the Holocaust, who has called for Israel's destruction, and who heads a regime that sponsors terrorism and commits some of the world's most egregious human rights violations against minorities and dissidents, was a featured speaker at the opening session of the Conference.

Representatives of the 24 member states of the European Union who were still participating in Durban II walked out of the conference hall in protest during Ahmadinejad's speech.  The Czech Republic announced that they would not return to the conference. 

Harsh Denunciation of Israel

While the final four days of the conference proceeded according to schedule, a number of speakers made harsh denunciations of Israel.  The "final resolution" was agreed upon and issued on the second day of the conference – complete with the problematic reaffirmation of the 2001 Durban Declaration, with its unacceptable implication that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is racist.  

In parting statements, a number of participating countries pledged that because of the controversies and efforts to politicize the fight against racism, there would be no “Durban III.”

The 2001 Durban Conference, held out the promise of making real strides in countering the scourge of racism. Unfortunately, the goals of the conference were undermined and overshadowed by base anti-Semitism and extreme expressions of anti-Israel sentiment by some groups. 

At that time, concerned governments, including the United States, hoped that they could influence the discussion and produce a government declaration that would advance the anti-racism cause.  

They were unable to prevail against those in the Asia and Africa group and their allies, who insisted on reducing the objective of fighting international racism down to one issue – the demonizing and delegitimizing of Israel. 

Despite vigorous efforts by the US and European governments the 2001 Durban Declaration had the effect of branding Israel's treatment of Palestinians as motivated by race and thus polluted the definition of racism itself in a decisive international instrument on the issue.