The U.N. General Assembly yesterday voted overwhelmingly to approve the declaration and plan of action from last year's World Conference against Racism, following a recommendation from the assembly's Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee.
The resolution -- passed yesterday by a roll-call vote of 134-2, with two abstentions -- calls for the implementation of the conference's outcome documents, a five-person panel to monitor implementation of the documents and measures to set up a special anti-discrimination unit in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The dissenting votes were cast by Israel and the United States. In explaining its vote, the U.S. representative said the conference, held last autumn in Durban, South Africa, had placed an unacceptable focus on the Middle East and that given the need to reduce violence in that region, the United Nations should not put disproportionate blame on any one side in the conflict.
Canada, which abstained from the vote, made similar objections, with its representative saying his nation disassociated itself from all negative references about Israel contained in the documents and from any process that did not promote a negotiated Middle East peace.
Cuba's representative said the conference marked a turning point in the history of the struggle against racism. The representative also expressed regret that the assembly was unable to approve the resolution without voting. According to the United Nations, the Assembly's approval of the resolution yesterday marked the conclusion of what U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson has called a "difficult process" marked by fundamental disagreement over the Durban conference outcome documents (U.N. release, March 27).:
