World Conference Against Racism - 2001 Conference

2001 Conference

The 2001 conference was held in Durban, South Africa, under UN auspices, from 31 August until 8 September 2001. Former Irish president Mary Robinson, then the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, presided as Secretary-General.

Entitled "World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance," the conference was discussing unfair treatment of one group against another. Significant time was focused specifically on Israeli treatment of Palestinians, treating violations of human rights and genocide in other parts of the world secondarily.

The 2001 meeting was marked by clashes over the Middle East and the legacy of slavery, and coincided with attacks on Israel and anti-Israel demonstrations at a parallel conference of non-governmental organizations. Canada, followed by the U.S. and Israel walked out midway through the 2001 conference over a draft resolution that, in their opinion, singled out Israel for criticism and likened Zionism to racism. The European Union also refused to accept demands by Arab states to criticize Israel for "racist practices."

Also in the conference, African countries - led by Nigeria and Zimbabwe - and African-American NGO's wanted individual apologies from each of the countries responsible for slavery, recognition of it as a crime against humanity and reparations called as such. The Europeans pulled together behind the UK and the best the Africans could get was a call for support for the New African Initiative, debt relief, funds to combat AIDS, the recovery of stolen government funds transferred to the West by former dictators and their cohorts, and an end to the trafficking in people. But the word 'reparations' did not survive.