STATEMENT BY B'NAI B'RITH INTERNATIONAL
and
THE COORDINATING BOARD OF JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS

made by
Richard D. Heideman, Head of Delegation
Honorary President, B’nai B’rith International
on 24 April 2009
Delivered to at the United Nations Durban Review Conference
Geneva, Switzerland

Mr. Chairman,

Many gathered here with hope for a better day in spite of the fact that the 2001 Durban Conference on Racism was marred, and thus fundamentally discredited, by the anti-Semitic outrages on the part of NGOs surrounding that Conference. In reality, this Review Conference will forever be remembered -- and blemished -- by the hate speech that we witnessed not outside, but on the very podium of this Conference by the man who had been afforded the honour of first place among the High-Level speakers. Applauded by an organized claque of delegates, he saw fit again to violate the General Assembly resolution forbidding the negation or minimization of the Holocaust, the worst racist crime of the past century, at a conference supposedly convened to combat racism. If any doubts persisted as to the usefulness of the outcome document, or indeed, the Conference itself, that speaker single-handedly dispersed any remaining doubt, while denigrating the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust. He justified and compounded the fears harboured by the countries that had withdrawn, and indeed encouraged several others to do likewise. His statement was broadly condemned by many countries and was accompanied by a massive walkout.

The outcome document, which reaffirms the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) containing the selective singling out of Israel, will hardly merit the label of “consensus”, even if it was railroaded through this Plenary in a desperate attempt to contain the damage caused by that speaker. In summary, Mr. Chairman, we do not believe that a single victim of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia will have reason to find solace from this process filled with pious declarations of intent.

Mr. Chairman, if any follow-up to this Conference's outcome document is envisaged, it should not be assigned to the Human Rights Council, itself already fallen into disrepute by virtue of its obsessive and singularly focused concentration on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the detriment of gross human rights violations in many parts of the world, such as Darfur, Iran, Libya, Rwanda, Syria and Zimbabwe, each of which truly merit attention for the protection of victims of human rights violations.

To you, Mr. Chairman, we say thank you.

To the delegates assembled here, we say we can and must do better to protect Human Rights.

To the Head of State I’ve been referencing, we say Stop Funding and Sponsoring Terrorism; and Stop Violating Human Rights.

We leave this gathering grossly wronged by a Head of State who came here to hijack this Conference, to his shame and our loss.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Heideman led a B’nai B’rith delegation of 50 members from 11 countries at the United Nations Durban Review Conference in Geneva. The group comprised the largest Jewish non-government organization (NGO) delegation at the conference.

The delegation included BBI Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin; Ambassador Joseph E. Harari, chairman of the Council on U.N. Affairs; Aaron Etra, vice chairman of the council; Director of U.N. and Intercommunal Affairs David Michaels; Klaus Netter and Armand Azoulai, who serve as BBI Permanent Representatives in Geneva, monitoring the Human Rights Council activities on a year-round basis; and other B’nai B’rith leaders from the United States, Israel, France, Panama, Germany, Uruguay, Mexico, Italy, and Switzerland, among other nations.

For more information on B’nai B’rith’s presence at and involvement with the Durban Review Conference, please visit www.bnaibrith.org/durban_2009.cfm.

BBI, an accredited non-governmental organization, has been active at the world body since its inception, and is the only major Jewish organization with an office dedicated to U.N. affairs and representation at U.N. institutions in New York, Geneva, Paris, Vienna, and Santiago. B’nai B’rith also has Permanent Representatives at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, the European Union in Brussels, and the Organization of American States in Latin America.