In the aftermath of a Quran-burning stunt in Sweden that sparked protests throughout the Muslim world, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has endorsed a resolution on religious hate and bigotry.
The proposal was approved on Wednesday, but the United States and the European Union opposed it because they claimed it went against their stances on free speech and human rights.
Concerned by the incident last month outside Stockholm’s largest mosque, in which an immigrant from Iraq desecrated the Quran on the festival of Eid al-Adha, Pakistan and other OIC nations obtained an urgent debate at the UN’s highest rights council on Tuesday.
Read here: Following Koran burning in Sweden, Morocco recalls ambassador.
The resolution urged nations to “prevent and prosecute acts and advocacy of religious hatred that constitute incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence,” among other things.
In a video address to the Geneva-based council on Tuesday, Pakistan’s foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said: “We must see this clearly for what it is: incitement to religious hatred, discrimination, and attempts to provoke violence.”
Such activities, according to him, were carried out “with the sense of impunity” and with “government sanction.”
Iranian, Saudi Arabian, and Indonesian ministers reiterated Bhutto Zardari’s comments.
“Stop abusing freedom of expression,” said Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi. “Silence means complicity.”
Inciting violence against Muslims, as well as members of other religions or marginalized groups, is “offensive, irresponsible, and wrong,” according to Volker Turk, the UN human rights commissioner.
Despite its condemnation of the Quran burning, Sweden insists that the right to freedom of assembly, expression, and protest is protected by the constitution.
On Tuesday, France’s ambassador Jerome Bonnafont noted that human rights “protect people – not religions, doctrines, beliefs or their symbols … It is neither for the United Nations nor for states to define what is sacred”.
How did your country vote?
UNHRC resolutions are not legally binding but are seen as strong political commitments by states.
Tuesday’s motion called for countries to review their laws and plug gaps that may “impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred.”
Algeria; Argentina; Bangladesh; Bolivia; Cameroon; China; Cuba; Eritrea; Gabon; Gambia; India; Ivory Coast; Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Malawi; Malaysia; Maldives; Morocco; Pakistan; Qatar; Senegal; Somalia; South Africa; Sudan; Ukraine; UAE; Uzbekistan; Vietnam
Belgium; Costa Rica; Czech Republic; Finland; France; Germany; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Montenegro; Romania; UK; US
Abstained:
Benin; Chile; Georgia; Honduras; Mexico; Nepal; Paraguay
