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U.S. Criticizes “Defamation of Religion” at UN
Category: Human Security
Friday, October 3, 2008
The United States has spoken out against efforts by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to pass “defamation of religions” resolutions at the United Nations.
As defined in a recent Issues Brief published by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, defamation of religions laws “protect a set of beliefs, ideas, and philosophies.” They can essentially prohibit individuals from criticizing or speaking out against religious ideologies contrary to their own. In contrast with traditional defamation laws, which “protect individuals from public slander or libel that would negatively affect their livelihood,” defamation of religions measures protect “ideas, worldviews, or religious beliefs” and would “require states to determine which ideas are acceptable, as opposed to which facts are true.”
The State Department’s opposition coincided with the release of its “International Religious Freedom Report 2008,” which states that the “‘defamation of religions’ concept is inconsistent with the freedoms of religion and expression and the OIC’s approach will weaken religious freedom protections, including protections for minority Muslim populations.”
According to the Becket Fund, the issue of defamation of religions was first introduced at the United Nations in 1999 by the OIC in the form of a draft resolution. The purpose of the draft resolution was “to have the Commission [on Human Rights] stand up against what the OIC felt was a campaign to defame Islam, which they argued could incite already increasing manifestations of intolerance towards Muslims to a degree similar to anti-Semitic violence of the past.” Since the introduction of the original resolution, similar resolutions continued to be brought before the former Commission on Human Rights and, now, the Human Rights Council. Though the “defamation of religions” concept theoretically protects all religions from criticism, the overwhelming use has been to attach the concept to speech deemed critical of Islam.
In his remarks on the subject, Ambassador John Hanford, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, stated that these resolutions seek “to weaken the freedoms of religion and expression by restricting the rights of individuals to share their views or criticize religions; in particular, Islam. The OIC’s approach to defamation of religions is inconsistent with international human rights law, and is an attempt to export the blasphemy laws found in several OIC countries to the international level.”
Indeed, the defamation of religions resolutions clearly go against the rights contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which stipulates that “everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference,” and “everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.” As stated by Asma Jahangir, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, by attempting to restrict what individuals can say in regards to the religious ideologies and beliefs of others, the defamation of religions resolutions “not only shrink the frontiers of free expression, but also limit freedom of religion or belief itself.”
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