United Nations | Sunday
UN SECRETARY General Kofi Annan welcomed the last-minute agreement reached Saturday at the world conference on racism in South Africa, saying failure would have ”given comfort to the worst elements in society.”
In a statement, Annan said the compromises which enabled UN member states to adopt a final declaration after extending the week-long conference by one day ”should send a signal of hope to people struggling against racism all over the world”.
The text, adopted after tough and acrimonious talks in Durban, South Africa, recognised the Palestinians’ right to an independent state and described slavery as a crime against humanity. The dispute prompted the withdrawal at the start of the conference by the United States and Israel, which rejected originally proposed anti-Israeli language that they described as ”hateful”.
In his statement, Annan said ”it was regrettable that the useful work of the conference was over-shadowed by disagreements on one or two highly emotional issues, especially the Middle East.” He did not refer explicitly to the US-Israeli boycott.
”Many hurtful things were said, particularly in the draft document submitted by the NGO Forum, which tended to inflame the atmosphere rather than to encourage rational and constructive discussion. Clearly we all need to reflect on this experience and see what we can learn from it,” he said.
”Not all problems in the world can be solved at United Nations conferences, and when member states do decide to hold such conferences we need to be conscious that, one some issues, they will reflect areas of real disagreement dividing the international community.”
The outcome documents of the Durban conference ”do not contain everything that many people would like to see, and they may contain some things that some people would prefer not to see,” he said. That was only to be expected when a large number of states tried to reach consensus on very contentious issues, he added.
Annan, who attended the first day of the conference before travelling to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Europe, returned to New York on Friday.
He thanked the South African government for hosting the conference and other delegations which ”worked night and day to achieve the final compromise.”
He gave especial thanks to South Africa’s foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the conference president, and to its secretary general, Mary Robinson, UN high commissioner for human rights, and her staff for the ”incredible effort” they had put into the conference over the past two years. – Sapa