April 19, 2009 in Nation/World

U.S. will boycott U.N. conference on racism

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WASHINGTON – The Obama administration will boycott “with regret” a U.N. conference on racism this week over objectionable language in the meeting’s final document that could single out Israel for criticism and restrict free speech, the State Department said Saturday.

The decision follows weeks of furious internal debate and will likely please Israel and Jewish groups that lobbied against U.S. participation. But the move upset human rights advocates and some in the African-American community who had hoped that President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president, would send an official delegation.

The administration had wanted to attend the meeting that begins Monday in Geneva, although it warned in late February it would not go unless significant changes were made to the draft text.

Some revisions – including the removal of specific critical references to Israel and problematic passages about the defamation of religion – were negotiated, for which State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the administration was “deeply grateful.”

But he said the text retains troubling elements that suggest support for restrictions on free speech and an affirmation of the findings of the first World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001 that the U.S cannot endorse.

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