POLAND MONITORING U.S. IMPACT ON DURBAN REVIEW

C O N F I D E N T I A L WARSAW 000182 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/17/2019 TAGS: PHUM PL PREL SUBJECT: POLAND MONITORING U.S. IMPACT ON DURBAN REVIEW REF: A. STATE 14145 ¶B. STATE 14201 Classified By: Political Counselor Dan Sainz for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) The Polish government was surprised by the USG decision to participate in the Durban Review working group in Geneva. Miroslaw Luczka, Deputy Director of the MFA's Department of United Nations and Human Rights, asked whether the U.S. has a plan coordinated with some of the key countries, as it goes into the working group. He expressed the hope that the U.S. is ready to engage substantively on the specific text, and that participation in the working group is more than symbolic. Otherwise, he feared U.S. involvement might change working group dynamics and present a target for critics of the working group without bringing offsetting benefits. ¶2. (C) Luczka noted that the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands have been the key EU countries in the negotiation of the text; the GoP is not actively engaged in the talks. Poland's position mostly matches that of the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands, as reflected in its UN Third Committee votes. The MFA is monitoring discussions through their mission in Geneva. So far, Luczka had only heard that the discussion was moving slowly and had not yet covered the contentious issues. ASHE