Durban II

Förberedelserna för anti-rasisimkonferensen Durban II är i full gång. Med viceordförande landet Irans hjälp har ett nytt utkast till dokument från mötet sett dagens ljus.
Liksom Durban I ser Durban II ut att bli en rasistisk konferens istället för en anti-rasism konferens.
Vad gör EU länderna? I stort sett ingenting.

Anne Bayefsky från EyeontheUN rapporterar:
"Intensive negotiations last week in Geneva have resulted in a new version of the "Draft Outcome Document" for Durban II - released yesterday. Iran - a Vice-Chair of the executive committee for Durban II - played a leading role in the drafting process, speaking more often than any other single state. The result? Now on the negotiating table: Jewish self-determination or Zionism is racism. Israel is guilty of apartheid and the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust is questionable."

Here are some of the features now part of negotiations according to the new draft:
-the "law of return" - the core of the self-determination of the Jewish people or Zionism - is racist
- Israel is guilty of crimes against humanity and "a contemporary form of apartheid"
- Israel's security fence is a "segregation wall"
- a provision condemning Israel's actions in Gaza
- while Israel is repeatedly condemned, not one of the other 191 UN states is mentioned
- a proposal to delete reference to the numbers of Jews murdered in the Holocaust - on the grounds that it is questionable
- a claim that "religions" - as opposed to individuals - can be "defamed"
- provisions curtailing free speech - "abuse of freedom of expression"
- efforts to limit and govern the media by "a code of ethical conduct"
- creation of a hierarchy of victims, with Muslim minorities on top - "most disturbing phenomenon is the intellectual and ideological validation of Islamophobia"
- efforts to trump universal rights and freedoms by references to cultural diversity, "cultural particularities," religious and cultural "identities"
- undermining counterterrorism activities by alleging they increase racism
- challenges to any responsibility for the trans-Saharan slave trade and the slave trade in the Indian Ocean
- introducing "anti-Arabism" as intolerance against a religious minority
- attempting to introduce laws against "projecting negative, insulting and derogatory images of religions and religious personalities"
- calls for new laws endangering rights and freedoms, such as, laws on "respect for human rights and reputation, public morals, and incitement to racial and religious hatred and freedom of expression".