For Immediate Release from FIRE—Feminist International Radio Endeavour

September 3, 2001

Durban, South Africa

US WITHDRAWAL FROM WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM CONDEMNED BY ACTIVISTS AND NGOs

As thousands of conference participants discussed and negotiated a wide range of issues, the United States Government today announced its withdrawal from the UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances, claiming the event is “pathologically focused” on the Palestinian-Israeli controversy.  The decision was made by Secretary of State Colin Powell on the advice of members of the US delegation.

But critics of this high profile decision including Reverend Jesse Jackson condemned the decision, claiming that the US Administration failed in its responsibility in the negotiations over the WCAR document language to “engage the process close up,”  because “you cannot lead with disengagement.”  Jackson, a longtime civil rights activist and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in the US also criticized the Bush Administration for sending a “low profile delegation” to the conference at the last minute.

Many NGOs (NonGovernmental Organizations) attending the WCAR conference have asked US citizens to contact their Congressional Representatives immediately and protest this dramatic withdrawal by the United States, which short-circuits an historic opportunity to create a world vision to combat racism and other intolerances.

Mary Robinson, Secretary General of the UN WCAR issued a statement of regret regarding the US decision to withdraw, but announced that the conference should continue until the end later this week.

Defending the US decision was a leading member and Democrat in the US delegation, US Congressional Representative Tom Lantos, who claimed that the conference was “hijacked by Arab & Islamic extremists.”   The US position is that the document “singles out one country”—Israel—for its oppression of the Palestinians, when “none of us have clean hands.” The language calls Israel a “racist state” which has conducted a “holocaust against the Palestinians.”

Apparently during the document negotiations, the Norwegian delegation proposed substitute language that was far more general and did not mention Israel specifically, but it was strongly rejected by the Arab delegations who comprised a “lynch mob” who were “hellbent on torpedoing the conference,” said Lantos.

The Palestinian issue has been just one of several major issues under discussion at the WCAR conference, rights of indigenous peoples, slavery reparations, oppression of Dalits and the caste system in India and elsewhere, and discrimination against the Roma (“Gypsies”) and other nomad groups, etc.  However, protests and rallies have been held throughout the earlier NGO Forum and official conference with strong support of the Palestinians from many NGOs in their condemnation of Israeli government policies and oppression.