Durban Review Conference
On the first day of the conference, Ahmadinejad, the only head of state to attend, made a speech condemning Israel as "totally racist"[8] and accusing the West of using the Holocaust as a "pretext" for aggression against Palestinians.
Durban IV took place on 22 September 2021 in New York, and was boycotted by 37 countries: Albania, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay.
The eighteen vice-chairpersons hailed from Cameroon, South Africa, Senegal, India, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Armenia, Croatia, Estonia, Russia, Belgium, Greece, Norway and Turkey, and the vice-chairman-rapporteur was from Cuba.
European countries had expressed fears that a commotion in regard to Israel's right to exist and the Holocaust would be raised by Ahmadinejad and some of the other delegates attending the event.
[63] A collection of human rights groups challenged the Iranian leader at the meet, charging that religious discrimination was widespread in Iran, notably the persecution of Baháʼís, Christians, Jews, Sufis, Sunni Muslims, and other minorities, through arbitrary arrests, intimidation and harassment.
The human rights groups called on governments taking part in the conference, as well as the media, to hold Ahmadinejad accountable for violations in Iran.
[67] In his opening speech, Ahmadinejad said that the Zionist creation of Israel in the British Mandate of Palestine was accomplished by "military aggressions to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering.
[72] The countries whose delegates participated in the walkout were: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic (which left the conference for good), Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, St. Kitts and Nevis and the United Kingdom.
[82] On the day of Ahmadinejad's return, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned a European Union representative in Tehran to protest what Iran called the EU's "double standard" with regards to racism.
"[83] Ahmadinejad speech: full text, BBC News Original draft of speech, BBC News On 19 April, the day before the opening of the UN conference, UN Watch and other non-governmental organizations hosted the "Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy," in order to raise public awareness to the issues of discrimination and racially motivated torture.
Speakers at the latter conference included former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy and former Miss Canada and President of Stop Child Executions Nazanin Afshin Jam.
Other events in Geneva opposing the UN conference were attended by Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, Harvard law professor and liberal activist Alan Dershowitz, former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, and film star Jon Voight.
[98][99][100] In a pre-summit planning meeting, Ashraf Ahmed El-Hojouj, a Palestinian doctor who had been tortured in Libyan prisons after being accused of deliberately infecting children with HIV, announced he was filing a legal complaint to the UN Human Rights Council.
"The United Nations should condemn countries that scapegoat, falsely arrest, and torture vulnerable minorities," said Hojouj, who addressed Najjat Al-Hajjaji, the Libyan chairwoman of the proceedings.
The Iranian Neda Institute for Political and Scientific Research was kicked out for distributing inflammatory material to meeting participants, while the Union of Jewish Students of France and the London-based group The Coexist Foundation were removed for disrupting Ahmadinejad's speech.
Two journalists representing the conservative magazine and website Townhall were also expelled for disrupting the proceedings after one tried to take over the podium while the other filmed the scene.
"[72] Navi Pillay called the declaration a "carefully balanced and yet meaningful" final document, which enshrined "a common aspiration to defy racism in all its manifestations and work to stamp it out wherever it may occur.
