Leaders applaud Australian vote against ‘Durban III’
AUSTRALIA'S vote against a United Nations resolution proposing a third United Nations human rights conference has won plaudits from Jewish organisations.
AUSTRALIA’S vote against a United Nations resolution proposing a third United Nations human rights conference has won plaudits from Jewish organisations.
The conference, nicknamed ‘Durban III’, is planned to mark the 10th anniversary of the human rights conference in Durban, South Africa, which turned into a platform for abusive attacks against Israel and the Jewish people.
Although the General Assembly resolution for the next conference passed, it was voted against by a bloc of countries, including Australia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania.
In a letter to Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) executive director Peter Wertheim stated that the Jewish roof body “thanks the Australian Government for voting against the resolution”.
“Durban I produced the Durban Declaration and Program of Action, which singled out Israel for criticism, (while naming no other countries), and introduced extraneous anti-Israel content which overshadowed and distorted the critically important professed agenda of the conference,” wrote Wertheim.
The ECAJ also asked Canberra to inform the UN Secretary-General that Australia will not to attend the commemoration “unless the General Assembly clearly acknowledges and repudiates the bias and anti-Semitism that marred both Durban I and the review conference held in Geneva in April 2009 (Durban II).”
Meanwhile, the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) backed the Government’s “principled stand”.
AIJAC chair Mark Leibler said: “It is to this country’s great credit that Australia has decided not to give credibility and legitimacy to what is a shameful perversion of the ideals of the UN. The transparent attempt to involve world leaders by holding the conference at the same time as the annual opening of the General Assembly should not be permitted to confer undeserved legitimacy on this process.”
Dr Colin Rubenstein, AIJAC’s executive director, said Australia had a “proud record of confronting racism and bigotry and the vote on this matter is entirely consistent with that tradition”.
Durban I was preceded by an NGO forum marred by anti-Semitic behaviour from representatives of a number of NGOs, with mobs breaking into the only NGO session devoted to combating anti-Semitism, forcing it to end. Threats of violence closed the Durban Jewish Community Centre, the meeting place for Jewish NGOs at the conference.
AJN STAFF
PHOTO: ECAJ executive director Peter Wertheim. Photo: AJN file
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