GENEVA: The United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday approved a contentious resolution on religious hatred in the wake of the burning of a copy of Quran in Sweden.
The resolution was opposed by the United States and the European Union who say it conflicts with their view on human rights and freedom of expression.
Twenty-eight countries voted in favour, 12 voted against and seven countries abstained.
The motion, brought by Pakistan in response to last month’s incident, were seeking to pass the resolution for the UN rights chief to publish a report on the topic and call on states to review their laws and plug gaps that may “impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred”.
Earlier, Volker Türk, speaking to the Human Rights Council, took on hatred and discrimination that fans violence amid growing concerns about “manufactured” shows of intolerance aimed to drive a wedge between civilizations. Recent burnings of the Quran have had sweeping repercussions and even weighed on Turkey’s reflections about whether to admit Sweden into Nato.
The debate, coming during the council’s summer session, shaped up largely along the lines of Western countries that condemned such intolerance but affirmed the right to freedom of expression, and predominantly Muslim countries who want governments to strengthen their legal arsenals to ban expressions of religious intolerance and hatred that could lead to violence, discrimination or hostility.
Spread values of tolerance: Saudi Arabia
“We’d like to stress that freedom of expression is an ethical value that should spread to peaceful coexistence rather than causing a clash of civilisations,” said Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, in a video statement. “We should spread values of tolerance.”
Türk denounced the Quran burnings in Europe among recent incidents that “appear to have been manufactured to express contempt and inflame anger, to drive wedges between people and to provoke transforming differences of perspective into hatred and perhaps violence.”
Beyond matters of legislation or government, he said people must show respect to “all others” and insisted that “advocacy of hatred that constitutes incitement to violence, discrimination and hostility should be prohibited in every state.”
Türk cautioned that hate speech of all kinds was on the rise — even if it isn’t always deemed to incite violence.
Pakistan and Palestine led a push for a council resolution that, among other things, called on countries to take steps to “prevent and prosecute acts and advocacy of religious hatred that constitute incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.”
The United States said it wouldn’t support the resolution amid concerns that it could trample on a fundamental right to freedom of expression.
“We know from experience that attempting to ban such expression actually usually amplifies it further by bringing even more attention to it and often serves as a catalyst for further hatred,” said Rashad Hussain, the US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, expressing US opposition to so-called “blasphemy” laws.
“Such laws also fail to address the underlying causes of bigotry,” he said, calling instead for efforts to “reinvigorate education and interfaith intercultural dialogue to confront hate speech.”
