Michael de Laine

Danish FM says Durban 2 is being diverted from combating racism

By Michael de Laine, Copenhagen, 6 March 2009

Denmark cannot accept that next month’s Durban 2 conference is being diverted from combating racism to restricting freedom of expression or any other human right, the Foreign Minister said on Tuesday. Denmark is committed to making the conference a success.

Denmark cannot accept that next month’s Durban review conference against racism is being diverted from combating racism and racial discrimination to restricting freedom of expression or any other human right or fundamental freedom, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Per Stig Møller told the tenth session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

The United Nations Human Rights Council met in Geneva.

“Next month, the Durban review conference against racism takes place here in Geneva,” Per Stig Møller said. “The conference shall review the progress made in the fight against racism on the basis of the Durban Declaration and Plan of Action adopted at the Durban conference in 2001. Racism shows its ugly face in all parts of the world and must be addressed also through international cooperation. The review conference should and must be an important event to this end.

The Foreign Minister said Denmark is committed to making the conference a success, and has from the outset been actively engaged in the negotiations of a draft outcome document.

“However,” he added, “the preparations of the conference so far give rise to serious concerns, and a consensus based on the draft outcome document after the first reading seems unlikely. Attempts are being made to divert the focus of the conference away from the real problems of racism.”

Møller said Denmark is committed to working for the promotion and protection of human rights.

“We cannot accept that the conference is being diverted from combating racism and racial discrimination to restricting freedom of expression or any other human right or fundamental freedom,” he said.

“The stakes are high,” Møller said. “If we lose focus, we risk that the consensus in Durban in 2001 will unravel to the detriment of our common endeavour to fight racism. It is a high price to be paid by those men, women, and children for whom racial discrimination is reality and who rely on us to further the international work to end their suffering. They are the focus of the Durban Review Conference. Let us keep that focus.”

The Minister for Foreign Affairs said it is the responsibility of all states to promote and protect the human rights and to ensure that the universality of human rights becomes a reality throughout the world.

“We - the member states of the United Nations - must therefore work together to secure that the Human Rights Council serves as the intended central platform for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” he said. “Last year I pointed to two important yardsticks to this end: the Universal Periodic Review and the review of Special Procedures mandates.”

Measuring the past year’s work against these two yardsticks, Møller said he pleased to welcome the completion of the first rounds of Universal Periodic Review (UPR). About one-third of the UN member states have been reviewed and the reviews have demonstrated the value of this instrument as a unique tool in the promotion and protection of human rights through monitoring and dialogue.

“The UPR clearly underlines the pivotal role for independent international monitoring in holding states responsible for the implementation of human rights,” Møller said. “All states must cooperate fully and in good faith with the international monitoring mechanisms. I encourage all states to issue a standing invitation to all Special Procedures established by the Human Rights Council and to honour such invitations in practice.

“The criticism such visits may result in should be seen as part of a constructive dialogue leading to an improvement of the human rights situation in all countries,” the Danish Foreign Minister said.

He added that he welcomed the extension during the course of the last year of mandates of Special Procedures.

“We need to strengthen – not weaken – the Special Procedures and their mandates in the service of promotion and protection of human rights,” Møller said. “I therefore regret the adoption last March of an amendment to the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression that risks shifting focus from the protection of freedom of expression to restrictions in the freedom of expression. This undermines our ambition of making the Human Rights Council the central – and credible – human rights platform.”

Per Stig Møller said he found it difficult to defend the Human Rights Council against the criticism expressed against it.

“We, too, are critical and share some of those concerns,” he said. “To our frustration, we find ourselves spending time on defending what has already been achieved, rather than moving the human rights agenda forward, which should be expected of us.”

Click here for the full text of the address.