November 4, 2008
Unofficial Transcript of EYEontheUN
Statement of Syria at the Third Committee on the Durban Review Conference


Warif Halabi of Syria 

Thank you Mr. Chairman. My country’s delegation supports the statement of Antigua and Barbuda on behalf of the Group of 77 and China on Item 62 - the Elimination of Racism and Racial Discrimination. In my declaration I would like to deal with 62 and 63 the Right of Peoples to Self-determination.  Mr. Chairman, my delegation would like to thank Mr. Githu Muigai’s presentation as the new Special Rapporteur for interim reports including the main goals of his mission, and we wish him every success in the next phase. As far as the Human Rights Council is concerned we support the idea of all countries complying with the Council and Special Rapporteur. We hope that this mandate will be part of the framework of the third decade of the fight against racism and racial discrimination, and will be part of the Durban Review Conference which is really a continuation of the third decades’ goals. Plus we have the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination’s  provisions. My country’s delegations supports the efforts of coordination made by the Special Rapporteur with a group of parties including peacekeeping operations, the Special Council on the Prevention of Genocide and Refugees, and the coordination bureau to make the most of synergies to effectively combat racism and racial discrimination. In this context the Syrian delegation supports  the backing or increasing cooperation in order to find common denominators between  societies and civilizations all over the world in order to face the growing of phenomenon of racism and racial discrimination. Racism is continued to increase because of the mass media, and that has led to a distortion in the image of certain religions and cultures and referring to the superiority of certain races. This is very worrying because it is increasing racial or religious superiority of one group over another, it contributes to spreading hate and xenophobia vis-à-vis certain groups and that in its turn contributes to threatening the stability and security and international peace, and then the racial sufferings of the Arabs and Muslims under the guise of fighting terrorism is one of the main issues to be considered in this context. The Middle Eastern situation is continuing to get worse. This is very alarming.  Racist practices, racial discrimination in our region have increased very seriously. We are continuing to witness premeditated murders against the Palestinian people within the framework of  a systematic policy characterized by genocide, exodus, the elimination of the justice of their cause, the import of foreign colonists based on pure racism within the framework of illegal colonization and colonists settlements which are illegal and which are continuing be built in the occupied Palestinian lands and in the occupied Syrian Golan in order to alter the demographic fabric of the occupied lands and to make this prevail. We welcome and expect the results of the Durban Conference in 2009 to fight these very serious phenomena, to eliminate them and to respect the UN principles and to guarantee international peace and security and to respect all human rights. Mr. Chairman, the Syrian delegation has taken note of the report presented on the Agenda Item of the Rights of  Self-determination. We would like to congratulate the Special Rapporteur for all the hard work done. The Syrian delegation deplores the absence of effective recommendations which would push states into complying with their commitments, especially for the rights of people under occupation to self-determination, however I would like to congratulate the  Special Rapporteur of reminding everyone of their obligations under the UN charter and Article One of the charter which is the principle of the equality of peoples’ rights and the right of each people to self-determination. It’s one of the main reasons of the Charter to establish friendly  relations amongst peoples to boost international peace and security. The two international pacts on human rights have reiterated the need to consolidate the right of people to self-determination and to respect this as an inalienable right, specifically the right of peoples under foreign occupation. It is extremely sad that today in the twenty first century the United Nations are impotent, sometimes voluntarily, to take effective measures to guarantee the implementation of this sacred right-the right of people under occupation to self-determination. Israel, because of its occupation, is still resorting to twisted and inhuman methods with the aid of big powers to deprive millions of Palestinians from enjoying their right to self-determination and this is the responsibility of the international community --this is a political and moral right. The United Nations brings us here today and it is as old as six Palestinian generations. I would just like to remind you of that. Thank you Mr. Chairman.