A four-day meeting intended to bring some coherence to the agenda of an international conference on racism in August ended today in Geneva with virtually every major issue still in dispute, human rights officials said. European countries and a bloc of Asian, African and Latin American nations are growing increasingly divided over what the conference will address, said Michael Colson, executive director of U. N. Watch, a private monitoring group based in Geneva. The United States has stood largely on its own, he said, but supports Europe on many issues.
Some diplomats say it is too early to declare the conference agenda in trouble.
It was supposed to be an initial reading, and we have finally started to do that. You've got 100 or so delegations in the room and everyone is making suggestions. Nevertheless, a second, previously unscheduled working-group session may now have to be planned. Mr. Colson said India, Pakistan, Iran and Syria dominated the meeting, which began on Tuesday. The four have tried to limit discussion to the Asian and Middle Eastern platform adopted last month at a regional meeting in Iran to firm up the August agenda.