As of late, defenders of the 2001 Durban debacle, from UN officials to activists in the U.S., have been trying to cleanse the world conference and its texts by rewriting history to allocate all of the blame, and isolating the stigma, to the NGO Forum, claiming it had no connection to the governmental conference.
In fact, in 2001, the UN had said the exact opposite. “I regard this Forum as an integral part of the World Conference,” said UN High Commissioner Mary Robinson in her August 28, 2001 address to a stadium of assembled activists. In particular, she noted how the NGO Forum “played a critical role in shaping the draft programme of action” adopted by the governments.
