People of the Pod: Hitler, Nazis, and Swastikas: What It Was Like To Be a Jew At the UN’s 2001 Durban Conference

Joelle Fiss   14 Sept. 2011

Want to hear about the worst conference against racism I ever attended? We arrived in South Africa as universalists, liberals, staunch multilateralists (and we remain so). We flied home on 9/11- hours before the attacks. And the confusion of the world around us eerily reflected our inner turmoil. 

I am comforted that some governments want to boycott the 20th anniversary of the UN Conference against racism in Durban– as if to acknowledge its “original sin” problems.

At the same time, the Durban declaration is (to my knowledge) the only key UN document on fighting racism and its governmental text is watered down considerably. It’s acceptable, even if I take issue to some wording. In times of Black Lives Matter and rampant intolerance across the globe, many communities are unaware of the controversies that surrounded us 20 years ago.

The challenge today is to preserve the memory of what happened, whilst engaging positively in the future. Ideally, there should be a new and better UN text!   

The interview starts around 1m30