On paper the U.N. World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance is an eminently laudable project — if you believe that the United Nations should promote grand statements that promote norms of good behavior. But the preparations for this meeting, and its predecessor, suggest that good intentions are not enough. Instead of fighting racism, the conference looks set to enshrine it as policy by singling out Israel for criticism and equating Zionism with racism.
Meetings like this undermine the U.N. and empower its critics. Acquiescing to this agenda is a mistake. The more countries protest against this meeting, the more hope there is for getting the U.N. back on track.
The first such conference was held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001. That meeting was dominated by discussions over the Middle East and the legacy of slavery. The United States and Israel walked out halfway through after it became apparent that attendees were going to spend most of their time condemning Israel, and ignoring virtually the rest of the world. The conference focus undermined respect for the U.N. in the mind of the U.S. administration, reinforcing a mind-set that saw the world body as discriminatory, misguided and unprepared to work on real problems.