UN Human Rights Council Calls for Restricting Free Speech
Oh, those wacky guys on the UN "Human Rights" Council. They are now looking to Saudi Arabia as a model for protection of individual rights:
The top U.N. rights body on Thursday passed a resolution proposed by
Islamic countries saying it is deeply concerned about the defamation of
religions and urging governments to prohibit it.The European Union said the text was one-sided because it primarily focused on Islam.
The U.N. Human Rights Council, which is dominated by Arab and other
Muslim countries, adopted the resolution on a 21-10 vote over the
opposition of Europe and Canada....The resolution "urges states to take actions to prohibit the
dissemination ... of racist and xenophobic ideas" and material that
would incite to religious hatred. It also urges states to adopt laws
that would protect against hatred and discrimination stemming from
religious defamation.Saudi Arabia said, "Maybe Islam is one of the most obvious victims of aggressions under the pretext of freedom of expression."
"It is regrettable that there are false translations and
interpretations of the freedom of expression," the Saudi delegation
told the council, adding that no culture should incite to religious
hatred by attacking sacred teachings.
Hat tip: Yet another Weird SF Fan
Update: I am kind of amazed the irony is lost on some folks, so I guess I need to be more explicit: I found it depressing that the UN Human Rights Council is calling for limits on speech.
M. Hodak:
"false translations and interpretations of the freedom of expression..."
That's too much.
June 8, 2008, 11:46 amCRC:
Maybe they should read Article 19 of their own "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" ( http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html ):
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
Doh!
June 8, 2008, 2:28 pmBob Smith:
The UNHRC obeys the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Islam". Read it and weep.
June 9, 2008, 12:49 amDan:
Hmm,
It would be interesting to examine the school textbooks used in the Arab and Muslim countries that supported this resolution and see how they refer to Judaism.
Self-examination and reflection are not the strong points of the Muslim world.
June 9, 2008, 5:45 amDan:
Case in point (see my message above):
The Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace in its 2003 publication entitled "The West, Christians and Jews in Saudi Arabian Schoolbooks" detailed hateful content and the glorification of violent Jihad against infidels.
June 9, 2008, 5:53 amRob:
Two things which bother me:
1. How are these Arab countries on a UN Panel for Human Rights, given their track record for treatment of women.
2. "...material that would incite to religious hatred" - So, does this mean we should ban the Koran itself? I mean when I read the parts about killing infidels (with some small exceptions for people of the book), that makes me want to "hate" the idea of Islamic religions.
Even though I disagree with the idea of banning materials, if it were to pass, the next issue would be: Who decides what material should be banned?
June 9, 2008, 6:55 amDan:
I'm against banning, myself. But it seems to me that if there were one book that could be banned and bring about a lot of good for the world, it would be the Koran. Too bad it wasn't banned 1,000 years ago.
June 9, 2008, 7:03 ammorganovich:
ok. iran and syria, you go first!
June 9, 2008, 12:06 pmFred from Canuckistan . . .:
quote from the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
Does the UN's left hand know what it's other hand is doing ?
June 9, 2008, 1:13 pmJim Collins:
Yeah Fred. The Left hand knows that the Right hand is in sombody else's pocket. I think it is about time to get rid of the UN. The UN whines about the US having a death penalty, but how much do you hear about the Saudis beheading their criminals? Throw honor killings into the mix and it gets worse. I kind of wish that the 9-11 hijackers had made a navigational error.
June 9, 2008, 2:44 pmtehag:
" I found it depressing that the UN Human Rights Council is calling for limits on speech."
You should have found it inevitable. The UN is an organization of governments, who have appointed the worst of their officials to represent their government. (That "government" is often mistaken for "people" should be noted.) The overwhelming majority of those governments are brutal tyrannies (Zimbabwe, Venezuela) or oppressive tyrannies (France, China). These governments know their own self-interest: they are opposed to free speech, free trade, well, actually almost any political concept with "free" in it.
June 12, 2008, 9:22 am