(CNSNews.com) – Just days before the opening of the U.N.’s “Durban II” racism conference, the draft document has been revised yet again – but this time a reference to “foreign occupation” has been reinserted. The document is at the center of the debate over whether Western democracies should attend.
 
Last January, the draft final declaration included numerous references to Israeli occupation, with the Jewish state the only country to be singled out and condemned for allegedly racist policies and practices.
 
That focus on Israel, along with other contentious issues including “defamation of religion,” prompted the U.S. to to announce at the end of February that it would not take part in the Geneva conference unless the document was substantially amended.
 
In March, Durban II organizers did so, removing all direct references to Israel and religious defamation. But the U.S. said this week that the changes were insufficient for it to agree to attend.
 
On Wednesday, yet another revision was presented in Geneva, where the preparatory committee (prepcom) for Durban II was beginning its final, three-day session. The revised version was welcomed by U.N. high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay, who urged all countries to take part in next week’s conference.
 
“You now have a document which, most agree, provides a good basis for consensus and hopefully a successful outcome,” she said.
 
The chairman of a working group responsible for the amendments, Russian diplomat Yuri Boychenko, said they were based on extensive consultations with states.
 
But comparison of the April draft with the March one reveals that “occupation” has been returned to the text.
 
A paragraph in the March version listed several phenomena that were “closely associated with racism … and contribute to the persistence of racist attitudes and practices.” The list comprised “poverty, underdevelopment, marginalization, social exclusion and economic disparities.”
 
In the version presented on Wednesday, the phrase “as well as foreign occupation” had been added to that list.
 
The Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA) – the outcome document of the last U.N. racism conference, in Durban, South Africa in 2001 – also singled out Israel for criticism, by identifying “Palestinian people under foreign occupation” as victims of racism.

Rights violators blamed

“This process of taking out some of the demonizing language against Israel, and then re-inserting it, illustrates the basic problem in this entire process,” Prof. Gerald Steinberg, executive director of the Jerusalem-based organization NGO Monitor, said Thursday.

“As long as the U.N. human rights mechanisms, including the Durban process, is subject to the political power of the worst human rights violators – the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Cuba, China, Russia, and others – events like this will continue to be counterproductive, in terms of human rights.”

Steinberg, who heads the political studies department at Tel Aviv’s Bar Ilan University, said it was unlikely that the U.S. government would able to make much of a difference to the process “without strong and consistent European support, and this is still not visible.”

Wednesday’s prepcom meeting was expected to be a full day affair, but non-governmental organization observers present reported that it was declared closed after just 25 minutes.
 
Among the few decisions taken during that short time, the meeting agreed that the 20-nation panel which since 2007 has overseen the preparations, will serve in senior capacities during the conference itself.
 
The bureau is chaired by Libya, its vice-chairs include Iran, and Cuba serves as rapporteur. The leading involvement of the three countries, all hostile towards Israel, has been one of the factors contributing to critics’ suspicions that Durban II will reprise the 2001 event, which was marked by a strong anti-Israel tone.
 
The U.N. said this week that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was one of just five heads of state or government to have confirmed plans to attend the April 20-24 conference.
 
Human Rights Watch on Wednesday threw its weight behind eleventh hour calls for the U.S. to go to the conference, arguing that the Iranian leader’s planned participation “should strengthen the resolve of governments to attend the talks and ensure the adoption of a strong declaration against racism.”
 
The U.S. is among several countries still mulling over whether to attend Durban II or to join Israel and Canada in boycotting it.