Tweet
Jewish group drops out of racism meeting after Iran objects
GENEVA (AFP) - A Canadian Jewish community advocacy group withdrew its application to attend the United Nations conference on racism after objections by Iran, UN Watch said Wednesday.
Iran made a "series of aggressive and seemingly endless objections" to the NGO's attempt to obtain accreditation for the conference, said the human rights monitoring group.
"It is ironic that a UN gathering meant to combat racism became a platform for Tehran's fundamentalist regime and its allies to single out and harass a mainstream NGO, for no apparent reason other than the inclusion in its name of the words Jewish and Israel," said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.
Iran objected to accrediting the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA) last month without citing reasons.
It was supported by Algeria, Egypt as well as a Palestinian observer, while the European Union and other Western states argued to accredit the NGO.
The first debate on the issue on April 21 ended with the NGO given 48 hours to provide information requested by Iran.
Iran sought more information during the second debate on April 28. This time, the NGO was given just 24 hours to respond.
"Iran was demonstrably acting in bad faith and applying a double standard by making invasive, repetitive and onerous demands of CIJA, of the kind made of no other NGO. By their actions, Iran and its allies effectively rejected CIJA's application," said Neuer.
He added that Iran's actions may have been partly motivated by Canada's lead role in a UN General Assembly resolution that spoke out against human rights violations in Iran.
When opening a two-week preparatory meeting in Geneva earlier this month on the conference, Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour had pledged that the new conference on racism will not be a repeat of a controversial 2001 summit in South Africa that drew charges of anti-Semitism.
The UN's first World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in 2001 in Durban, was condemned by the United States, Canada and Israel for descending into anti-Semitism.
The conference took place amid the backdrop of the eruption of the second Palestinian intifada in the West Bank and Gaza, and ended just days before the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
Iran made a "series of aggressive and seemingly endless objections" to the NGO's attempt to obtain accreditation for the conference, said the human rights monitoring group.
"It is ironic that a UN gathering meant to combat racism became a platform for Tehran's fundamentalist regime and its allies to single out and harass a mainstream NGO, for no apparent reason other than the inclusion in its name of the words Jewish and Israel," said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.
Iran objected to accrediting the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA) last month without citing reasons.
It was supported by Algeria, Egypt as well as a Palestinian observer, while the European Union and other Western states argued to accredit the NGO.
The first debate on the issue on April 21 ended with the NGO given 48 hours to provide information requested by Iran.
Iran sought more information during the second debate on April 28. This time, the NGO was given just 24 hours to respond.
"Iran was demonstrably acting in bad faith and applying a double standard by making invasive, repetitive and onerous demands of CIJA, of the kind made of no other NGO. By their actions, Iran and its allies effectively rejected CIJA's application," said Neuer.
He added that Iran's actions may have been partly motivated by Canada's lead role in a UN General Assembly resolution that spoke out against human rights violations in Iran.
When opening a two-week preparatory meeting in Geneva earlier this month on the conference, Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour had pledged that the new conference on racism will not be a repeat of a controversial 2001 summit in South Africa that drew charges of anti-Semitism.
The UN's first World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in 2001 in Durban, was condemned by the United States, Canada and Israel for descending into anti-Semitism.
The conference took place amid the backdrop of the eruption of the second Palestinian intifada in the West Bank and Gaza, and ended just days before the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
Comment