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Durban Review Conference 2009

In 2006, the United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution 61/149, decided to convene in 2009 a review conference on the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. To this end, it requested the Human Rights Council to prepare this event, making use of the three existing and ongoing follow-up mechanisms, to formulate a concrete plan and to provide yearly updates and reports on this issue starting in 2007.

The United Nations Human Rights Council is acting as the Preparatory Committee for the Durban Review Conference. The Preparatory Committee planned to have three sessions.

The first took place in Geneva from 27 to 31 August 2007. During this session, Governments took a number of organizational decisions, including the provisional rules of procedure of the Durban Review Conference, sources of funding for the Conference, accreditation of NGOs, objectives of the Conference, the organization of regional preparatory meetings, and others.

The first substantive session of the Preparatory Committee was held from 21 April to 2 May 2008, also in Geneva. During this session the Preparatory Committee took several important decisions concerning such things as the accreditation of several NGOs, the dates, duration and venue of the Review Conference, the structure of the Draft Outcome Document of the Review Conference and the creation of an Intersessional Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group to review recommendations submitted by different stakeholders as contributions to the outcome of the Review Conference.

The provisional dates for the second substantive session of the Preparatory Committee are 6 to 17 October 2008. The Review Conference will take place between 20 and 24 April 2009 in Geneva.

Regional meetings in preparation for the Durban Review Conference are scheduled to take place between May and September 2008. Reports from these activities will be submitted to the second substantive session of the Preparatory Committee.

What are the objectives of the Review Conference?

In August 2007, during its organizational session, the Preparatory Committee for the Conference set forth the objectives of the Durban Review Conference as follows:

1. To review progress and assess implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action by all stakeholders at the national, regional and international levels, including assessing contemporary manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, through an inclusive, transparent and collaborative process and identify concrete measures and initiatives for combating and eliminating all manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in order to foster the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action;

2. To assess the effectiveness of the existing Durban follow-up mechanisms and other relevant United Nations mechanisms dealing with the issue of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in order to enhance them;

3. To promote the universal ratification and implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and proper consideration of the recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination;

4. To identify and share good practices achieved in the fight against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

 





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