U.N anti-racism conference participants adopt consensus resolution

PanARMENIAN.Net - The United Nations anti-racism conference moved from rancor to rapport on Tuesday, overcoming a conference-opening denunciation of Israel by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to adopt a consensus resolution that governments applauded as an improved basis for action against racism and xenophobia.

The adoption of the resolution by the committee that coordinates the conference ended months of negotiation that removed contentious clauses referring to Israel and Palestine and trying to make defamation of religion an offense against human rights.

The conference will formally adopt the document here on Friday, but it is no longer open to debate or amendment, diplomats said.

The conference statement was a significant improvement on the outcome of the conference in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, officials said. Ms. Pillay noted that implementing the 2001 plan had suffered setbacks because of increased migration, terrorism and measures used to fight it.

The new resolution showed "the process is therefore evolving in a positive direction," said Peter Gooderham, the British ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.

In a statement, the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said the final statement marked a victory over "those tempted to use the Geneva conference to forward their ideas of hatred and intolerance," The New York Times reports.