JAKARTA - A total of 28 countries approved a resolution against religious hatred in a vote at the UN Human Rights Council, while the United States and its allies were among 12 countries that rejected it while seven others abstained.
The draft resolution, proposed by Pakistan and Palestine, calls on countries to take steps to "prevent and prosecute acts and advocacy of religious hatred that constitute incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence", as quoted The National News July 12.
The proposed resolution is inseparable from the burning of the Koran in Sweden by Iraqi immigrants, after previously obtaining permission under the pretext of freedom of expression, even though the local police had banned it.
The 12 countries that rejected this resolution were Belgium, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Romania, the United Kingdom and the United States.
While those who abstained were Benin, Chile, Georgia, Honduras, Mexico, Nepal, Paraguay.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk highlighted the line between freedom of expression and respect for religious beliefs.
He called for respect for "everyone", including migrants and those who wear the headscarf.
🔴BREAKING
The @UN🇺🇳 Human Rights Council adopted draft resolution L.23 (as orally revised) entitled "Countering religious hatred constituting incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence."
Full results of the vote at #HRC53⤵ pic.twitter.com/RqQM7m1dBP
— United Nations Human Rights Council 📍 #HRC53 (@UN_HRC) July 12, 2023
He said the recent burning of the Koran appeared to be a show of intolerance fabricated to “turn people against each other”.
"(The burning of the Koran) appears to have been created to express contempt and inflame anger, to encourage division among people and to provoke differences of perspective into hatred and possibly violence," Turk said.
He said society should show respect for "everyone" and stressed "advocacy of hatred which constitutes incitement to violence, discrimination and hostility must be banned in every country".
Turk also says hate speech in various forms is on the rise, even when it is not always seen as inciting violence.
"Demeans women and denies them equality with men; verbally abuses Muslim women and girls who wear the headscarf; ridicules persons with disabilities; makes false claims that migrants or people of certain ethnicities are more likely to engage in crime, All such hate speech is similar in this respect because it stems from the basic presumption that some people are less worthy of respect as human beings."
During the debate, several Western countries condemned intolerance but emphasized the right to freedom of expression. In contrast, some Muslim-majority countries want governments to do more to ban expressions of religious intolerance that can lead to violence.
"We want to emphasize that freedom of expression is an ethical value that should spread to peaceful coexistence, not to cause a clash of civilizations," said Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan.
"We must spread the values of tolerance," he said.
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Meanwhile, the United States said it would not support the resolution out of fears it could trample on the fundamental right to free expression.
"We know from experience that attempts to ban such expression usually reinforce it by drawing more attention to it and often serve as a catalyst for further hatred," said Rashad Hussain, US ambassador for international religious freedom, expressing US rejection of so-called blasphemy laws.
"Such laws also fail to address the root causes of bigotry," he said, calling instead for efforts to "revive inter-faith education and intercultural dialogue to confront hate speech".
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