MOSCOW, April 21 (RIA Novosti) - The United Nations
conference on racism which opened in Geneva on Monday should
give an impetus to the struggle against intolerance, a Russian
deputy foreign minister said on Tuesday.
"The Russian Federation urges the conference to give a
fresh strong momentum to uniting efforts to fighting racism and
racial discrimination," Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement
posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website.
Yakovenko has also called on conference participants to
"understand their responsibility for the further development of
the event and show political will to reach mutually beneficial
decisions."
More than 100 countries approved on Tuesday a final
declaration urging the fight against racism.
"The hopes of millions of victims are pinned to the
implementation of this document, but the noblest charter is
reduced to empty rhetoric if the commitments it enshrines are
given no practical effect," High Commissioner for Human Rights
Navi Pillay said.
The consensus came a day after Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad called Israel a "racist" country. The statement led
to a walkout from the conference by a number of EU delegates.
Israel withdrew its ambassador to Switzerland in protest
at an earlier meeting between the Swiss and Iranian presidents
this weekend and said the conference was "hosting a
Holocaust-denying racist who openly declared his intention to
wipe Israel off the map."
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