UN High Commissioner for Human Rights "shocked" at US boycott of anti-racism conference

[Better Believe It]

Boycotts hit U.N. racism conference
CNN
April 19, 2009


The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said she was "shocked and deeply disappointed" at the boycott.

"A handful of states have permitted one or two issues to dominate their approach to this issue, allowing them to outweigh the concerns of numerous groups of people that suffer racism and similar forms of intolerance to a pernicious and life-damaging degree on a daily basis all across the world, in both developed and developing countries," she said in a statement. "These are truly global issues, and it is essential that they are discussed at a global level, however sensitive and difficult they may be."

The document will reaffirm anti-discrimination commitments agreed at a 2001 meeting in Durban, South Africa. The United States objected to the 2001 agreement -- joining Israel in walking out of the Durban meeting.

The boycott has caused concern among anti-racism campaigners in the United States.

The Congressional Black Caucus said it was "deeply dismayed" by the decision made by the nation's first African-African president, saying it was inconsistent with administration policies.

"Had the United States sent a high-level delegation reflecting the richness and diversity of our country, it would have sent a powerful message to the world that we're ready to lead by example," a statement from the group said.

"Instead, the administration opted to boycott the conference, a decision that does not advance the cause of combating racism and intolerance, but rather sets the cause back."

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/04/19/racism.conference/index.html

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay,


Navi Pillay, UN Human Rights Chief, Reminisces as Victim and Enforcer


I was told things like 'white secretaries can’t take instructions from a black person,'" said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who is of Indian descent, recalling her years growing up in apartheid South Africa when she wanted to become a lawyer in a society stratified by institutionalized racial discrimination.

But she persevered, completed her university law studies and, finally, was taken on as an intern by a black lawyer. She opened a law practice of her own in 1967, not out of choice, but because nobody would employ a black woman lawyer, and by the early 1970s, had challenged laws that permitted torture and unlawful methods of interrogation, leading to better conditions for all those imprisoned on Robben Island, including future president Nelson Mandela.

Over 20 years later, Pillay was on the other side of the bar, meting out justice to the Hutu extremist perpetrators of the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus as President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

"Impunity, armed conflict and authoritarian rule have not been defeated," she said. "Regrettably, human rights are at times sidestepped to promote short-sighted security agendas. And lamentably, a trade-off between justice and peace is often erroneously invoked when societies emerge from conflict and combatants return to their communities.

But just as she persevered over 40 years ago as a young university student, so will she persevere today as the world’s top human rights official. "One of the main challenges I face, like my predecessors, is to get the international community to take human rights seriously. When I leave this job, I would like to be able to say that I've made a real difference in some people’s lives, because the organization I head has functioned to its full potential."

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