US Boycotting Conference on Racism: Durban II a Bust

This is good news, these conference have been characterized by a hatred of Israel and a deliberate effort to ignore the horrendous crimes from Sudan to Hamas. It appears the United States will not be alone in the boycott, Australia is not going and neither will New Zealand or Holland.

The Boycotts role in:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A major United Nations anti-racism conference was thrown into further disarray Sunday when more countries joined a U.S. boycott

Australia and the Netherlands were the latest to pull out of next week's meeting in Geneva, amid a growing dispute over a document said to single out Israel for its racism.

Washington says despite numerous redrafts of the controversial document, due to be adopted at the conference, it remains unhappy, and says it violates American principles of free speech.

Canada, Israel, Italy and Sweden have also announced they are boycotting the conference aimed at creating a global blueprint for tackling discrimination. Britain says it will attend.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States is boycotting a U.N. conference on racism next week over a document that "singles out" Israel in its criticism and conflicts with the nation's "commitment to unfettered free speech," the U.S. State Department said Saturday

Another key part was the absurd notion that to criticize certain religions is a criminal offense, something absurd to the extreme.

Altering the council from within will be a formidable task—especially after a vote on “defamation” on March 26th which enhanced the body’s reputation as an obstacle to free expression as most Westerners would understand the concept. The resolution was passed in defiance of an appeal from a remarkably broad range of secular, Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups; in a joint statement, they had argued that by denouncing the “defamation” of faith the Council would give heart to regimes that set out to “silence and intimidate human-rights activists, religious dissenters and other independent voices.”

The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), a lobby group which co-ordinated the appeal, says the resolution is part of an effort by Islamic governments to establish a new definition of human rights which stresses the immunity of faiths from criticism, not the protection of individuals from persecution. Roy Brown, who represents the IHEU in Geneva, believes the latest resolution reflects a campaign by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to supplant the Universal Declaration on Human Rights with the “Cairo declaration” adopted by the OIC in 1990, which lays out an alternative view of liberty.

Supporters of the Cairo statement say it complements the universal one—but as human-rights wonks have noted, the Cairo document carries the huge rider that the application of all human rights should be subordinated to sharia law. It also affirms the illegitimacy of “exercising any form of pressure” on Muslims to quit their faith “for another religion or for atheism”—in terms that seem to deny the individual’s freedom to change religion, and to justify the penalties for “apostasy” and blasphemy that many Muslim states impose.

An unenviable task, then, for the American diplomats who face the task of arguing back in defence of old-fashioned libertarianism. But re-engaging with the council will boost America’s image in many quarters—regardless of what it decides to do about a related human-rights forum: the so-called Durban II conference on racism, due to take place in Geneva in late Apri

Unfortunately the Congressional Black caucus, coming of the heels of their Castro disaster are upset that the President won't send a delegation.