The United Nations should be restructured to become more representative of all member states, human rights activists said today at the end of an anti-racism conference in Cairo, Egypt.
The activists said the veto power a handful of countries enjoy in the UN Security Council is a major form of discrimination.
In a statement entitled "The Cairo Declaration on Anti-Discrimination," the participants demanded that Arab countries respect ethnic groups on their territories, such as the Kurds, and called on Arab governments who have not ratified international agreements on women to do so.
The statement also called for Israel's unconditional withdrawal from Palestinian and Syrian territories it seized in the 1967 Middle East war and urged participants to support the Palestinian uprising "as it confronts the racist subjugation practices and human rights abuses of (Israel)."
The declaration came at the final session of the conference in Cairo, Egypt, which opened on Thursday. Around 65 representatives of local, regional and international human rights organisations attended the gathering to forge a united stance ahead of the World Conference Against Racism, scheduled to begin August 31 in Durban, South Africa.
The statement called for a more effective UN, saying the world body's role has seen "remarkable marginalisation" due to the "United States's sole control" over it.
"The veto power that world powers enjoy in the Security Council is a major form of discrimination," said the statement.
"The United Nations should become more representative and more effective at expressing the interests and common responsibilities of humanity," it added.
The conference also called for more protection for Asian workers, especially those in the Gulf, saying "they don't enjoy full legal protection ... and are subjected to various forms of discrimination."
AP