Five Days until Day One of Conference

The Durban Review Conference will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, April 20-24, 2009.

I will be attending, participating, witnessing, recording, and reporting on the United Nations’ proceedings, the NGO proceedings, and “life on the street” in Geneva during the week. My trip is made possible by the American Jewish Committee’s new generation program, called ACCESS. I am one of 21 from across the US selected for this honor and the only participant from Boston.

The Durban Review Conference will evaluate progress towards the goals set by the United Nations’ World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, in 2001. Besides the UN event in Durban 8 years ago, a non-governmental organization (NGO) forum occurred almost simultaneously and adjacent. Both demonstrated and issued some of the most anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and inaccurate statements seen in decades.

The main goal of the Geneva meeting is the eventual implementation and confirmation of the 2001 Durban Conference’s final document (Durban Declaration and Programme of Action). This and many other documents can be found at www.eyeontheun.org/Durban .

I leave soon and will be in Geneva starting this Saturday. The schedule we will keep is packed with much interaction with international attendees on both sides of the issues. Besides the UN Conference, there is a pre-conference called the Geneva Summit For Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy. See the program and many sponsors at http://www.genevasummit.org/ . Inversely, there is an anti-Israel meeting, similar to the one in Durban, planned as well. This one is called the Israel Review Conference. This will be a hate filled program based on the false accusations that Israel is a state of colonialism, apartheid, and occupation.

Please check back here often. I will try to update this daily and offer items I hope you find interesting and worthwhile. Thank you for reading this blog.