The UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa from August 31 to September 7, 2001, brought together over 12,000 representatives from 194 states and organizations to forge a common agenda against discrimination. Over two decades later, the “Durban process” has come to symbolize the United Nation’s polarization over antisemitism and anti-Zionism, a form of antisemitism which opposes the Jews’ right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. While the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) articulated a broad framework to combat racism and discrimination, the 2001 conference and the 2009 review were marred by incidents and rhetoric that normalized antisemitism and recast anti-Zionism as human rights advocacy, prompting U.S. and Israeli walkouts and later widespread boycotts.
Annual UN debates now reflect this divide. A large majority of nations vote to reaffirm the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA), while a bloc of Western countries led by the United States, Israel, and the United Kingdom—either vote no or abstain. The antisemitism present at the 2001 Durban Conference, its NGO forum, and review meetings left a reputational stain on the anti-racism initiative. This legacy still shapes today’s voting patterns, civil society mobilization, and enduring disputes over whether Durban advanced equality or enabled the very hatred it sought to oppose. The 2001 conference is also widely seen as laying the groundwork and launching the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement whose aims are to delegitimize Israel, which was formalized in 2004-2005.
The 2001 Conference Preparations: Controversy and Antisemitism
While the conference aimed to combat racism, it became deeply controversial due to its almost exclusive focus on Israel and the prevalence of antisemitic rhetoric and materials. Prior to the conference, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson assured that "the formulation 'Zionism equals racism' has been done away with.” She was referring to UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 which claimed that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination,” adopted November 10, 1975, passing with 72 states voting in favor, 35 against, and 32 abstentions. It was later repealed in December of 1991 by Resolution 46/86, with 111 votes in favor, 25 votes against, and 13 abstentions.
The preparatory process for the 2001 Durban Conference was compromised when the Islamic Republic of Iran, chairing the Asian regional conference in Tehran in February 2001, refused to grant permission to Israeli and Jewish organizations to attend until the last flight to Tehran had already left Paris, effectively preventing them from participating. This occurred after Mary Robinson pledged to make the Iranian government allow Jewish and Israeli representatives attend the meeting, saying it was their right. The Asian summary document accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing,” of implementing “a new kind of Apartheid” and “a crime against humanity,” and said Zionism was “based on race superiority.” This document then became a template for the NGO declaration at the main conference in Durban. The final Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) listed the "Palestinian people under foreign occupation" as victims of racism. This singling out of Israel and portrayal of it as a racist state delegitimized its very existence, leading the US and Israel to walk out of the conference.
2001 NGO Forum
Perhaps even more shocking was the NGO Forum that preceded the main Durban Conference, which quickly became an epicenter of antisemitic activity and anti-Israel hatred. With over 50,000 participants gathered in a network of tents, the forum was supposed to provide civil society input on combating racism; instead, it devolved into a cauldron of hate directed at Israel and Jews. Through a coordinated strategy, the anti-Israel lobby commandeered panels and drafting sessions, with biased moderators amplifying accusations and distortions. Many long-standing human rights groups signed onto bitter condemnations that stripped meaning from terms like genocide and war crimes and devalued the uniqueness of the Holocaust and Apartheid.
At the forum, NGOs sold the notorious antisemitic forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" openly alongside antiracist materials and distributed pamphlets featuring Hitler's photograph with text reading: "What if I had won? The good thing is there would have been no Israel and no Palestinian’s [sic] bloodshed. The bad things: I wouldn’t have allowed the making of the new Beetle. THE REST IS YOUR GUESS.”
The sole commission addressing antisemitism was disrupted by activists who insisted on equating the Holocaust with Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and redefining antisemitism, the term that refers to hatred and discrimination of Jews, as anti-Arab sentiment because “Arabs are Semites.” The attempt to redefine the term for anti-Jewish discrimination is antisemitic in itself, as it erases the specific history, identity, and experiences of Jewish people and the distinct nature of anti-Jewish prejudice. The conference further trivialized Holocaust history by invoking multiple “holocausts,” using Nazi terminology to describe Israel and Zionism, and amplifying rhetoric like long-time Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi’s false charge against Israel of “demographic engineering” to preserve Israel’s “purity.”
Other participants also made provocative statements including "After the Shoah, how can you inflict on the others the same suffering that you have been subjected to?" while arguing that Jews inappropriately use the term antisemitism for their own purposes. Other individuals shouted "You are all murderers! You have Palestinian blood on your hands!" and "You don't belong to the human race!" One man specifically targeted a Jewish participant wearing a kippa, yelling "Chosen people? You are cursed people! I won't speak to you, as long as you do not remove this thing."
The NGO forum’s final declaration process was marked by procedural chaos and intimidation by pro-Palestinian activists. The activists spread out and joined each sub-group of the drafting session demanding changes to paragraphs on antisemitism, insisting that the Holocaust, the deliberate and systematic extermination of over 6 million Jews by the Nazis, be equated with Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and that the term antisemitism must be defined as anti-Arab sentiment since “Arabs are Semites.”
The final NGO declaration that emerged from this corrupted process called for the restoration of UN Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism, accused Israel of "war crimes and acts of genocide," classified it as a "racist nation," and demanded the application of all measures used against apartheid South Africa, including embargos and suspension of diplomatic ties. Conference organizers even sought to nullify the Jewish Caucus submission on antisemitism because it did not identify Zionism as a “root cause” of antisemitism as they sought to define it: anti-Palestinian racism. The few non-aligned groups, including the Roma caucus and Central European caucus, walked out in protest, with Roma representatives specifically denouncing the text as antisemitic.
The corruption of the process was so egregious that UN High Commissioner Mary Robinson announced that, for the first time in UN history, she could not recommend the NGO document to governments. Holocaust survivor and US Congressman Tom Lantos called the Durban Conference "the most sickening display of hate for Jews I have seen since the Nazi period," while Canadian Professor Irwin Cotler declared, "If 9/11 was the Kristallnacht of terror, then Durban was the Mein Kampf." This NGO Forum established the template for decades of anti-Israel activism disguised as human rights advocacy, demonstrating how international forums ostensibly dedicated to combating racism could be hijacked to promote the very hatred they claimed to oppose.
UN Organizers’ Response
Following the chaos of the NGO forum, the official conference began, and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson noted in her kick-off remarks that the conference would deal with “particular victims of racism,” putting Palestinians at the head of her list, as major victims of racism. As she exited the stage, and the audience sang refrains of Bob Marley’s reggae hit “One Love, one heart, let’s get together and feel alright,” an enormous banner followed her through the crowd which read “President George W. Bush, Palestinian blood is on your hands.”
High Commissioner Robinson eventually criticized the distribution of a booklet of antisemitic cartoons by saying that when she sees this kind of material, “I am a Jew,” but the stage had
already been set. Nevertheless, antisemitic materials contributed to be distributed at the conference.
Follow-Up Conferences and Continued Controversy
Durban Review Conference (2009)
The 2009 Durban Review Conference in Geneva was intended to review implementation of the DDPA but faced similar problems. Libya, under Muammar Gaddafi, chaired the preparatory committee, raising credibility concerns. Ten countries boycotted the conference, fearing it would promote antisemitism and restrict free speech.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the only head of state to participate. In his speech, he stated that Israel is "the most aggressive, racist country"; claimed that Jews exploited the Holocaust to make Palestinians homeless under the pretext of protecting Holocaust survivors; and he characterized global Zionism as "the complete symbol of racism.” 23 European Union delegations walked out during his speech, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon later said that he "deplored" Ahmadinejad’s remarks.
Durban III (2011)
The 10th anniversary commemoration in September 2011 was boycotted by 14 governments, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Durban IV (2021)
The 20th anniversary commemoration in September 2021 saw even broader boycotts, with 38 countries refusing to participate, including Australia, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The European Union also declined to participate.
Legacy and Impact
The Durban process has had lasting negative consequences for international efforts to combat racism. Rather than advancing anti-racism work, it became what critics describe as a platform for legitimizing antisemitism under the guise of human rights advocacy. The conference is widely credited with laying the groundwork for the launching of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
Twenty-four years after the original Durban Conference, the "Durban process" remains a contentious element of international human rights discourse. While intended to combat racism, it has instead become synonymous with the promotion of antisemitism and the delegitimization of Israel. The consistent refusal by many countries to participate in subsequent Durban conferences reflects widespread recognition that the process has failed its original mission and instead serves to perpetuate the very hatred it was meant to eliminate.
Amending the Durban Declaration Programme of Action to Address Antisemitism
The following recommendations can aid UN member states in providing feasible supporting amendments to the DDPA to confront, address, and prevent antisemitism in UN anti-racism fora. The demonstration that the UN has the capacity to correct course and acknowledge its past harms would help in establishing credibility for the framework.
Future resolutions should:
- Address and acknowledge with deep concern the antisemitic manifestations that occurred at the 2001 World Conference against Racism and at associated civil society events, including the distribution of antisemitic materials and harassment of Jewish participants, which discredited the forum’s aims.
- Note the antisemitic narratives and rhetoric that UN leadership publicly deplored as undermining the purpose of the anti-racism fora.
- Recall General Assembly resolution 46/86, which revoked the determination equating Zionism with racism, and reaffirming that attempts to revive or imply such an equation contradict UN decisions.
- Express profound regret for the distress and harm caused to Jewish participants and communities by antisemitic incidents associated with the Durban process, and commits to measures ensuring non‑discrimination, safety, and dignified inclusion.
- Express grave concern at the rise in antisemitism in various parts of the world, condemn without reservation all forms of antisemitism, and urge States to adopt comprehensive measures in line with international human rights law.
- Request strict application of accreditation standards; mandates that NGOs engaging in discriminatory conduct, harassment, or incitement risk suspension or withdrawal of accreditation.