The government of Iran is preventing one of Canada’s leading Jewish advocacy organizations from being accredited to the Durban Review Conference (Durban II) and its preparatory committees.

The Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA) was informed
last week by contacts in the Department of Foreign Affairs that Iran
recently raised an objection to CIJA’s inclusion as a recognized
non-governmental organization (NGO) at the Durban conference.

That information came a little over a month after the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) first informed CIJA in a letter that “the government of Iran… has decided to object to the accreditation of your organization.”Under procedures established by the Durban II preparatory committee, all applications for accreditation by NGOs that did not attend the first Durban conference in 2001 are reviewed by UN member states, which can submit comments on the application. “The comments of member states shall be communicated to the non-governmental organization concerned, which will be offered the opportunity to respond,” the UNHCHR letter said.

Durban II is the followup to the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban, South Africa. The 2001 conference was used by some countries and NGOs to criticize Israel and the United States.

Hershell Ezrin, TOP RIGHT, chief executive officer of CIJA, said the organization has no idea why Iran is putting up roadblocks to its participation at Durban II, and he doesn’t know why the preparatory committee is not following its own rules by allowing CIJA to address a member state’s concerns.

In a letter to the UNHCHR last week, Ezrin requested that it “share with us any comments made by Iran, their grounds for objection and when and how we will be given an opportunity to respond.”

Ezrin said the UN had failed to comply with its own rules regarding accreditation. Furthermore, the Durban II preparatory committee was to hold its next meeting on Monday, the second day of Passover, when Jewish participants would have been unlikely to attend. “Because the Canadian government is not part of the process [it has announced it will not attend Durban II], Canada won’t be at the meeting when it will be discussed,” he said.

“The question then becomes, how does the issue get responded to at the meeting which is taking place on the second day of Pesach?”

Ezrin said CIJA is “talking with other organizations who might be there.”

In Geneva, UN Watch issued a news release stating, “Iran’s attempt to bar Jewish organizations from a UN gathering – one that is supposedly designed to combat racism – only underscores the fears of many that we are in for a replay of the raw anti-Semitism that turned the 2001 Durban conference into a fiasco.”

UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said Iran was repeating a pattern that preceded the Durban I meeting: “No one forgets how, in February 2001, Iran excluded Jewish groups from the Tehran preparatory meeting, an occasion they then used to insert anti-Semitic incitement of the worst kind into the draft Durban declaration.”

Neuer suggested Iran might also be responding to Canada’s lead role in a UN General Assembly resolution “that spoke out for victims of Iranian human rights violations.” The resolution censured Iran for violating the rights of Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis, Sunni Muslims and Baha’is.

“The question is whether Canada’s allies will speak out on Monday. That could lead to a vote and the question will be who will win the day, the democracies or Iran and its allies.”

The Iranian Embassy in Ottawa did not respond to a request for a comment.