– HYPERLINK https://mail.hudsonny.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.un.org/webcast/humanrightsday/archive2008.html \t _blank Commemorative session on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

December 12, 2008
 
– HYPERLINK https://mail.hudsonny.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://portal.ohchr.org/portal/page/portal/HRCExtranet/UDHR-60-12Dec08/France%2520(on%2520behalf%2520of%2520the%2520European%2520Union).pdf \t _blank H.E. Ms. Rama Yade, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights of France (on behalf of the EU) 

Official translation

 “Here I would like to say a few words about an important appointment which is going to need our common energies in the next few months that is to say the Durban Review Conference. The campaign against racism and xenophobia is a combat for equality and against intolerance. This is a combat which must bring us together and not divide us. Racism has always been an ignoble phenomenon and we must therefore counter it without reservation in every form in which it is manifest. We must commit ourselves in our spirits and in our  hearts. The European Union which is based on values of tolerance and mutual respect has sought constantly to suppress prejudices and hate. We know what the challenges are and we recognize them. None of us are exempt from criticism but we would like to reiterate our determination to be true to our commitments…    


The EU will therefore participate in a constructive manner as possible in the Durban Review process. Our clear and constant position is well known to all: the process must concentrate on the implementation of the DDPA, and in no case should the review focus on one particular geographic area or country. The process must focus on the future and not the past, and it must demonstrate to what extent the promotion of human rights and particularly freedom of expression can play an important role in countering racism. And we must make sure we don’t commit same errors as in the past. We must not indulge in pointless debates. It is in this spirit of openness and vigilance that the EU would like to act in order to preserve the consensus achieved in Durban. And the EU will do all it can to give rise to a balanced position on the part of the international community at the end of the Review Conference in 2009. We’ll approach these debates in a spirit of universality.”