South Africa reportedly dropped its bid to host the second Durban anti-racism conference.
U.N. Watch, a watchdog that monitors United Nations bodies for bias, reported South Africa’s back-down in an email late Thursday, and praised it.
“The expected adoption of a controlled U.N. headquarters as the venue, be it Geneva, Paris, or Vienna, is something we fought for, as one of many necessary steps to prevent a repeat of the ugly street scenes of Durban in 2001,” the group said in a statement, adding that it will now probably be held in a European city next Spring.
The first U.N. conference on racism, in Durban, South Africa, deteriorated into an anti-Israel and anti-Semitic free-for-all. The prospect of a repeat performance has led Canada to opt out of Durban II, and there are mounting calls in the U.S. Congress for the United States to do so as well.
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