Venue dispute hits UN racism conference 
May 2, 2008
Agence France-Presse
Original Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=116983

GENEVA - A preparatory meeting for a United Nations racism conference was suspended Friday as Western countries and Arab and Muslim states failed to agree on where the conference should even be held.
While the issue appears banal, a diplomat source told AFP that the location is a point of contention as it would have a bearing on the attendance of the conference.
The conference is the second after a controversial summit in Durban, South Africa that drew charges of anti-Semitism.
A source told AFP that Western countries believe that the conference should not take on a political nature but should be a special session of the UN General Assembly.
In this case, a possible location would be one of the four seats of the UN -- Geneva, New York, Vienna or Nairobi.
However, such a move would impact on participation in the conference, given that the United States, Israel and Canada have all already decided to boycott the conference.
Other diplomat sources said that some countries, notably Western, favor rotation of meetings following the Durban conference in different continents.
A special session would be held on 26 May to decide this issue as well as the length of the conference, said the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in a statement.
Consensus, however, was reached for a likely date in June 2009, while it was decided that accreditation of non-governmental organizations will be automatic for those which already have consultative status with the UN as well as those which were cleared to participate in the first conference.
Others have to go through an examination.
Of 47 NGOs which were examined, seven were granted accreditation while one group from Bhutan rejected due to insufficient information.
Thirty-seven others were provisionally accepted, and in one case a decision is pending.
Earlier, a Canadian Jewish community advocacy group withdrew its application to attend the United Nations conference on racism after objections by Iran.
Iran objected to accrediting the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA) last month without citing reasons.