U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and her UN envoy, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, won plaudits for casting the sole opposing vote on a UN budget that will allocate some $7 million to hold a series of global conferences on racism organized by Libya, Iran, Cuba, and other countries often criticized for their poor human rights records. Forty other countries, including members of the European Union and Canada, objected to the Durban Review Conference in a separate vote, but only the U.S. voted against the general budget, the first time in twenty years that it did not pass by consensus.
The Wall Street Journal hailed the U.S. stance as a rare moral victory at the UN. For details on the country positions as summarized by the UN, for the final vote click here, and for the lower committee votes click here. See also play-by-play coverage of the all-night negotiations by the intrepid Matt Lee here.
