News

The Durban Review Conference, which is taking place this week from 20 to 24 April in Geneva, evaluates progress made since the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban, South Africa. According to the UN, over 4700 participants have registered to take part in the Conference, among them over 1000 representatives of more than 300 NGOs.



The UN has published a summary with the highlights of the press conference by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navy Pillay, on the 21st of April on adoption of Durban Review Conference outcome document. Ms. Pillay announced that the document was adopted by consensus. The outcome document incorporates valuable elements such as: the reinforcement of "the political commitment to the implementation of the DDPA"; the emphasis on "the increased suffering, since 2001, of many different sorts of victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and similar forms of intolerance"; the identification, sharing and dissemination of "some best practices in the fight against racism"; the reaffirmation of "the positive role of freedom of expression in the fight against racism, while also deploring derogatory stereotyping and stigmatization of people based on their religion or belief"; and the launch of "a process that will examine how the prohibition of incitement to hatred, as reflected in Article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has been implemented in various parts of the world."



The High Commissioner also reported that the situation regarding racial discrimination has become worse during the last eight years due to several circumstances. She said that "the level of poverty, as the economic crisis and unemployment hit the poorest the hardest and those at the lowest rung tend to suffer worst from discrimination."



To access the full UN article please click on: http://www.un.org/durbanreview2009/coverage/press/pr_21-04-09.shtml

Link to the outcome document: http://www.un.org/durbanreview2009/pdf/Durban_Review_outcome_document_En.pdf