U.N. Watchdog Group Barred From ‘Racism’ Meeting

[shira]

U.N. Watchdog Group Barred From ‘Racism’ Meeting

But a group with close ties to Gaddafi is cleared to attend
By Patrick Goodenough
Sept. 15, 2011

(CNSNews.com) - A watchdog group that has frequently angered human rights-violating regimes at the United Nations has been blocked from attending next week’s controversial “Durban III” racism meeting in New York.

U.N. Watch, based in Geneva and accredited by the U.N., has been excluded from a list of 88 approved non-governmental organizations, but a group with close ties to Libya’s former Gaddafi regime was approved to attend next Thursday’s event.

The high-level meeting marks the tenth anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Plan of Action (DDPA), first adopted in Durban, South Africa. The U.S. and at least 10 other Western democracies have announced they will not attend, because both the 2001 “Durban I” and a 2009 review conference, “Durban II,” picked out Israel for condemnation.

<snip>

In an unusual but effective tactic, U.N. Watch has at times used its time slot to feature a guest – such as the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan who defended the conduct of Israel’s 2008-9 offensive against Hamas in Gaza; and a Syrian opposition supporter who last month challenged countries like China, Russia and Pakistan by name, asking them how they could justify their “support for a regime that slaughters its own people.”

http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1285603&ct=11223653¬oc=1

[aranthus]

1. Well, we can't have truth at a UN conference now, can we? n/t

[cali]

2. It's a bullshit right wing group- and I think Durban

is a travesty and should be boycotted.

[vminfla]

3. We cannot have people unsympathetic to their institutionalized racism there

I think that they learned from both Durban I and II that it is best to leave out the press that is unsympathetic to their racist agenda.

[bemildred]

4. Does anybody know what "accredited to the UN" means here?

Anyway:

I condemn this, they ought to let them (UNW) have their say.