The Durban Disaster

Conn Carroll / April 24, 2009

Heritage Foundation fellow Brett Schaefer delivered the following statement to the Durban Review Conference on Friday, April 24, 2009. Schaefer and Heritage fellow Steven Groves attended the conference during the week of April 20-24, and reported what they witnessed here on the Foundry as well as at National Review Online and The Corner.

Thank you Mr. President,

We share the sentiment of many in the NGO community that the treatment of our organizations this week has been disappointing to say the least. In this venue and for this conference, the value of input from national, regional, and international NGOs prior to the adoption of the outcome document would have been particularly constructive.

As it is, the final outcome document was adopted on the second day of the conference before a single NGO had the opportunity to make an intervention. Certainly some NGOs participated in the preparatory meetings for the Durban Review Conference, but the vast majority of NGOs cannot afford to travel to Geneva on multiple occasions and were relying upon this week to be heard. (more…)