In April this year the Human Rights Council will hold a ‘Durban Review’ conference in Geneva, in order to “evaluate progress towards the goals set” at the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR). The 2001 meeting ended in confusion when the Israeli and US delegations walked out, and its impact was largely forgotten when a few days later the Al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Centre occurred. The original WCAR was a disaster in many ways. Originally intended as a means of developing ‘soft law’ regarding racial discrimination, the meeting quickly descended into…