§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what financial contribution he made to the preparation and running of the UN World Conference against Racism; and if he will rank the UK contribution against that of other UN member states(a) according to size of contribution and (b) according to proportion of GNP. [10463]
§ Peter HainThe total contribution made by the Government to the holding of the UN World Conference against Racism was £485,000. This contribution included financial and practical support to the Conference812W Secretariat (the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights); to the South African NGO SANGOCO co-ordinating the holding of the Conference NGO Forum; and to other relevant bodies to encourage the widest possible participation on the Conference and its preparatory meeting by civil society.
There are no data available on total contributions made by other UN member states to the World Conference process. Therefore it has not been possible to draw any direct comparisons. In terms of financial contributions to the Conference Secretariat tie excluding practical support to the Secretariat and funding for non-Secretariat activities), the UK contribution of £100,000 was the 12th largest received from a UN member state. In addition, the European Union contributed US $2,613,859 to the Secretariat in support of the preparation and running of the conference.