SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE - EUROPE
66 rue Laugier - 75017 Paris
Tel. +33-147237637 - Fax: +33-147208401
e-mail: csweurope@gmail.com

Wiesenthal Centre to European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner: "EU Engagement in the Durban Process only Endorses States Whose Policies Evoke Racism and Bigotry"

Participating in the First Conference on Fundamental Rights convening today in Paris, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, challenged the 27 member-state EU and the 47 nation Council of Europe rights agencies' Joint Statement, issued on 5 December 2008.

This document justified these intergovernmental organizations' engagement in the UN review conference ("Durban II") next year in Geneva.

Samuels lamented that "the Joint Statement had not condemned the antisemitic excesses of 'Durban I' in 2001, nor the signals of a repetition in the preparatory lead up to 'Durban II'."

Commending the initiative of the the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) predecessor - the European Monitoring Centre's 2004 Working Definition on Antisemitism - and the Council of Europe (COE) country reports on intolerance, Samuels noted that, "were Durban II to be a forum of European democracies, the FRA/ COE manifesto - 'Do not miss the opportunity to step up the global fight against racism and discrimination!' - might have been realsitic."

He warned that "the prime-movers of Durban II are, however, totalitarian hatemongers, serial human rights violators, silencers of free expression, terror-masters and genocidists in-waiting."

The Centre reminded the EU that "it had set three redlines to determine its participation in Geneva:

1. No addition of 'new forms of racism' to the 2001 consensus.

2. No restraints on freedom of expression.

3. Treatment of all cases without politicization and without a hierarchy among victims of racism and discrimination.

The preparatory documents show that all 3 redlines have already been crossed. Thus, the FRA/ COE Statement defies credibility as an unguarded engagement in the Durban process that can only endorse the spoilers of the international community."

Samuels urged FRA Director, Morten Kjaerum, and COE Human Rights Commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg, "to condemn language redolent of Durban I, and to walk away from Durban II, when agitators abuse the United Nations' bloc politics for incitement to hatred and violence."

"The battle against racism and discrimination must not be hijacked by States whose policies evoke racism and bigotry", concluded the Centre.

For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at +33.609.77.01.58.