United Nations Radio

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says she is greatly encouraged about the acceptance by all regional groups of the revised draft text for the upcoming Conference against Racism.

Navi Pillay

Navanathem Pillay met with a large number of ambassadors to discuss their reactions to the shortened text of the draft outcome document. Spokesman Rupert Colville says Ms. Pillay has appealed to the Ambassadors to maintain the current momentum and spirit of cooperation.

" All the ambassadors the High Commissioner has met with so far have indicated that they consider the text a very good basis for negotiations. They said any fine-tuning or improvements should be minimal, and that the fundamental balances in the text should not be reopened. "

Some objections made to a previous version of the text were over the criticism of Israel's policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the issue of defamation of religions. The Durban Review Conference, as it is known, will take place in Geneva from April 20th through the 24th.

For UN Radio, I'm Bissera Kostova.

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