Wednesday, January 23, 2008
UNITED NATIONS -- Canada is poised to become the first country to significantly distance itself from a major anti-racism conference the United Nations is planning for next year.
Maxime Bernier, the Foreign Minister, is expected to announce as early as Wednesday Canada is dropping out of planning for the Durban II Conference, which the UN is billing as a global follow-up to its 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.
Insiders say the government feels the new conference is shaping up to be like the anti-West and anti-Israel free-for-all that critics said the initial gathering quickly turned into.
But the move is bound to spark accusations Ottawa is not serious about combatting racism around the world...
Of course! After all, who could be against an "anti-racism" conference? Doesn't that mean you're all for racism? Well, no, of course not. Assuming a replay of the original Durban conference, the only thing better than staying away would be for Western nations and whatever others they can gather with them to stage a walk-out.
I have to admit - if this is true, I am pleasantly surprised.
The problem I see with a walk-out is the presence of NGOs. These are often agenda-driven and radicalized. I can just see the NGOs from the US - supporting and intensifying the anti-US, anti-Israel, and anti-Jewish positions of this hate-fest. I have to wonder what role these unelected groups should have in any such conference. In Durban 1 the NGO conference clearly overshadowed any official action.
It seems to me that it is the worst possible approach - one that gives an appearance of democracy while incorporating unaccountable, radicalized, even lunatic individuals and organizations as active pressure groups on the UN. This creates a situation that is profoundly anti-democratic and anti-rule of law. Instead, it creates some sort of back-door civil society bureaucracy that makes some organizations more equal than everyone else.
In the period leading up to Durban 1, a regional conference (held in Iran) excluded Jewish NGOs and Israel.
Oh yeah ... this was about ending racism. Silly me, expecting such a conference to have a problem with anti-Jewish racism.