7/1/08
U.N. Ruling: Islamic Sharia Taboo in Human Rights Council Debates
In its recently concluded June session, the UN Human Rights Council ruled that any references to Islamic Shar’ia law are prohibited in the council chamber. Even outgoing UN rights chief Louise Arbour, who more than once sought to appease the UN’s anti-blasphemy squads, expressed her concern. [more]
6/19/08
Durban II Debate: Islamic states want focus on “foreign occupation” and criticism of Islam
The Durban Review Conference, the UN’s world racism confab set for next April in Geneva, will be a highly visible, amply funded, well-advertised and attended gathering that will focus the world’s attention on the West’s defamation of Islam and racial discrimination against its adherents, as well as on Israel’s racist persecution of Palestinians. [more]
6/7/08
Draft Durban II Declaration Breaches Europe’s Red Lines
The first outline for the declaration to emerge from the 2009 Durban Review Conference breaches the red lines set forth by France, the UK, Netherlands and other EU governments, with special references to the Palestinians as victims of Israeli racism. [more]
6/4/08
UN convenes “International Meeting on the Question of Palestine”
The UN opened its “International Meeting on the Question of Palestine” in Malta yesterday. Led by Paul Badji of Senegal, Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the conference identified the "main obstacles" to peace. [more]
6/1/08
Draft Durban II Declaration Breaches Europe’s Red Lines
The first outline for the declaration to emerge from the 2009 Durban Review Conference breaches the red lines set forth by France, the UK, Netherlands and other EU governments, with special references to the Palestinians as victims of Israeli racism. [more]
6/1/08
Amnesty International Hosts Qaddafi Booster
Despite our urgent appeal to Amnesty International (AI) Secretary-General Irene Khan, she went ahead and appeared on an AI Switzerland panel with Jean Ziegler, Qaddafi’s chief ally at the UN. [more]
5/25/08
Tutu Undertakes One-Sided Mission to Gaza; UN Mum on Egyptian Occupier
A one-sided UN inquiry against Israel from 2006 is now being revived. The terms of this 2006 mandate presume Israel’s guilt and omit little details such as the Hamas rocket attacks from the areas to which Israel returned fire. Those were just some of the reasons why Professor Irwin Cotler, former Justice Minister of Canada, turned down a request to join the mission. [more]
5/14/08
UN Human Rights Council’s “Pretty Packed Schedule” Has No Time for Myanmar’s Starving Victims
At the initiative of the Cuban government, the UN Human Rights Council will convene an emergency “special session” to address rising food prices. But if “the right to food” were really their concern, why are council members failing to hold an emergency session on Myanmar’s unconscionable denial of that right for millions of its starving, post-cyclone citizens? [more]
5/1/08
China and Russia are greatest funders of Durban II fund, says UN
According to the UN’s latest budget document on the Durban II preparations, China and Russia are the greatest contributors to its voluntary fund. [more]
4/16/08
Mullahs tell UN Durban II conference: Iran is free of racism
In advance of next week’s first major planning session of the UN’s “Durban II” conference on racism, member states have filled out questionnaires on their actions and policies to combat discrimination. Iran’s submission, however, dodges any questions of racism in that country, which it says is blessed with “the absence of any division based on race or ethnicity in any walk of life.” [more]
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