U.S. Groups Criticize Western Nations for Boycotting U.N. Racism Conference

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Groups like the Congressional Black Caucus, Human Rights Watch and the U.S. African Chamber of Commerce say the United States could have made a difference on other issues at a U.N. anti-racism meeting that singled out Israel as a human rights violator.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Several U.S. groups are criticizing the United States and other nations for boycotting a controversial United Nations conference on racism, as the start of the meeting Monday was marked by inflammatory, anti-Israel remarks.

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But groups like the Congressional Black Caucus, Human Rights Watch and the U.S. African Chamber of Commerce said the United States and other nations that opted not to attend made the wrong move. They said they regard the summit as a legitimate avenue for addressing racism globally and Israel in particular.

Human Rights Watch suggested that those boycotting the conference only helped destabilize it.

"The sad truth is that countries professing to want to avoid a reprise of the contentious 2001 racism conference are now the ones triggering the collapse of a global consensus on the fight against racism," Juliette de Rivero, Geneva advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a written statement.

She accused those countries of putting the "concerns of victims last," capitulating to "radical voices" rather than isolating them and playing "into the hands of those who want the conference to fail."

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/04/20/organizations-criticize-western-nations-boycotting-conference/