An In-Human Rights Council Programmed by Islam? Why the UN Durban Review Conference Must Be Boycotted

In 1990, the „Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam“ was passed by the member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. This declaration proclaimed the Sharia to be the sole basis for human rights. The third UN World Conference against Racism, which took place in Durban, South Africa in September 2001, strengthened this tendency: a fatal tribunal-effect against every democracy, uninhibited personal freedom, freedom of opinion, freedom of press, of arts and – in general – against human rights resulted from this conference.

By: Nasrin Amirsedghi

 In Cairo and Durban all human rights conventions to date were turned upside down and racism was redefined. At the Durban Conference we were also instructed that Israel is not only an apartheid state, but also the reincarnation of National Socialism, despite Hitler's Mein Kampf being sold on the very conference grounds. One could see this as an ironic twist —and a nightmare!

Since then, all kinds of dictators, racists, fundamentalists and fanatics of the world have been getting together in Geneva and have been efficiently issuing statements about how to save the world and their subjects. The declarations follow the human rights understandings of Council members from communist and Muslim states, the doctrine of Islamic law and the Sharia, in which no equality between the sexes, no right to free choice of religion or of a marital partner exist. Incomprehensible, but true: this is how the Human Rights Declaration is being created and perverted in the very name of human rights.

During a „diplomatic initiative to create an adequate UN Human Rights Council“[1] in Geneva, which has been taking place since March 2003 under the auspices of the Swiss Federal Council member Micheline Calmy-Rey, it has been possible to watch even more confusing and paradoxical developments that lead away from the original meaning of human rights within the UN-Charta of 1949. Five years ago, Micheline Calmy-Rey appointed researchers, who were to look for possible ways to reform the current UN Human Rights Commission. Allegedly reformed in good faith, the work of the new UN Human Rights Council that took over from the UN Human Rights Commission in 2006 seems to be programmed even more by the „Cairo Declaration“ than its predecessor.

It is also to be expected that the state of human rights will slide into the state they were at in the middle ages at the Durban Review Conference, which will take place in 2009 in Geneva. It is interesting to note that exactly those states that organized the Durban event in 2001 abstained from the vote on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the 26^th of June, 1945. At the time, states from the Eastern bloc, the Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia and South Africa abstained. And thanks to the „Islamic Revolution“ in 1979, Iranian Mullahs, who have been creating a peoples prison in Iran during the last 30 years and who are responsible for arrests, executions, stoning, lashing, amputations, fights, paternalism, veiling and harassment and who deny the holocaust in a celebratory way and want to wipe Israel from the map, have joined these leaders.

In June 2006, the Human Rights Council, which has 47 members, including Switzerland, replaced the UN Human Rights Commission. This was supposed to become „an important stage in the history of the UN and a foreign policy success for Switzerland.“[2] Here, „human rights [will be] promoted and protected.“[3] The Council should „check the human rights situations in all member states and obligate them to adhere to human rights.“ „If a member state is accused of grave and systematic breaches to human rights,“ they should be „suspended.“[4] However, one questions how – when the UN General Assembly, with a majority of Islamic and post-communist states, decides about the composition of the Council.

With grand words and under the auspices of the ignorant Swiss initiators, countries like Iran, Libya, China, Saudi Arabia, etc., have seats in- and dominate the Human Rights Council. Countries, in which there are hardly any freedoms, let alone democratic conditions. Blatantly, these despotic states are exploiting western accomplishments for their intolerance and antisemitism and against the principles of democracy and freedom.

It is the task of each and every democrat to resist this and to call for the abolition of the UN Human Rights Council in its current composition. We also have to consequently call for an alternative conference against racism in general and especially against antisemitism. All essential ethnic questions and the establishment of conventions to regulate basic rights have to be subordinate to the universal application of human rights. The human being must be defined as an absolutely free being and not based on a certain faith or a certain state ideology. We should work much more actively, in order to find allies and create networks. For simply waiting for the deeds of politicians is often a waste of energy and time. The clock is ticking and the dangers are lurking everywhere: not only in the Middle East, but also in the West, with Islamic fundamentalism, that is delusionally directed against  freedom and humanity, against Israel and those of different faiths. It is our biggest wish to see a UN body established, that seriously pursues the worldwide enforcement of human rights and acts consequentially.  

What is currently supported by blind westerners within the UN Human Rights Council, implies a secret identification with the aggressors and an additional danger for the victims, who are subject to daily persecution because of their quest for freedom: youth, women, intellectuals, journalists, artists, gay couples, minorities and those of different faith. We have to rise to this moral challenge. It is our responsibility towards the victims to do something.

We call on the European Union member states – especially Germany – to boycott the „Durban 2“ Conference. Please sign our appeal, which you can find in German or English on the internet at: http://boycottdurban2.wordpress.com.

Nasrin Amirsedghi is a publicist of Persian decent, now living in Mainz, Germany. She initiated the appeal „Boycott Durban 2!“

The text was modified and translated from German by the editors in accordance with the author.