PREPARATORY MEETING FOR WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM ENDS IN GENEVA

1 June 2001




The second session of the Preparatory Committee of the forthcoming World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance ended today in Geneva with delegates deciding to meet again at the end of July.

The Committee, which is open to all Member States of the Organization, discussed proposals for inclusion in the draft declaration and programme of action that are to be forwarded to the World Conference in Durban (31 August to 7 September) . Delegates finalized during their two-week meeting a draft preamble to the Declaration and made headway on consolidating the draft texts before them. A group of 21 countries representing all regions will meet for the next two weeks in Geneva to continue to work on the draft documents. That session will be followed by a third meeting of the full Preparatory Committee from 30 July to 10 August.

In closing remarks, High Commissioner for Human Rights and Secretary-General of the World Conference Mary Robinson welcomed the work achieved but said progress had been worryingly slow. “Can we dare hope that the third session will manage to reach a consensus on at least 80 to 85 per cent of the proposals? I recall that I said in my opening remarks to the Prepcom that the clock is ticking. That is even more the case now and if we are to have a successful conference we must make faster and better progress”, she said.

The report of the second session of the Preparatory Committee and the draft declaration and draft programme of action are contained in documents A/CONF.189/PC.2/L.1 and A/CONF.189/PC.2/L.1/Add.1.

For further information on the World Conference, please contact José Díaz, on +41 22 917 9242, +41 79 217 3009 (mobile), jdiaz.hchr@unog.ch.




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