United Nations Human Rights Council: 15th Session
Agenda Item 9: GD
Oral Intervention- Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
28 September, 2010
Delivered by: Laila Matar
Thank you Mr. President,
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) is deeply concerned about the rising instances of discrimination and incitement to hatred in all regions. We are also deeply concerned about the various ways in which the concept of Defamation of Religions is used in the Arab Region, not to protect religious freedoms or against discrimination, but to protect the official interpretation of a given sect of Islam over the “non official” ones, and to discredit other religions. It is used as a tool to limit, restrict, and violate Freedom of Opinion and Expression.
In a written intervention to this session, CIHRS and nine partner organizations from throughout the Arab region documented various ways in which legislation that criminalizes the defamation or derision of religion amounts to blasphemy laws that are being used as a means to harass and suppress bloggers, journalists, writers, and activists in countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Yemen, Jordan , Sudan, and Morocco.
These laws may be used by fundamentalists, directly by the state, or by close allies to the state filing third-party suits. Victims of these laws in some cases face sanctions ranging from stiff prison sentences to execution, or they may endure constant threats and harassment by extremists and fundamentalists. In all cases, it is the state that bears the primary responsibility to protect its citizens against attacks and violations of their right to Freedom of Expression. Similarly, the responsibility lies with European states to protect their citizens against discrimination. These countries have not taken full responsibility in preventing discrimination against minorities, in particular Muslim communities. The time has come to deal with this problem within the existing international legal framework.
In his report to this session, the Special Rapporteur on Racism and related intolerance emphasizes the rising cases of discrimination and intolerance, but also rightly encourages States to move away from the notion of defamation of religions and towards the legal concept of advocacy of racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, in order to anchor the debate in the relevant existing international legal framework.
CIHRS fully supports this vital recommendation and believes it offers a remedy both for discrimination and for oppression of Freedom of Expression. The existing international legal framework provides tools to combat discrimination, hatred, and intolerance in ways that does not violate Freedom of Expression.
CIHRS calls on states that currently utilize blasphemy laws to prosecute their citizens, to immediately remove such laws and release all detainees imprisoned for exercising their freedom of expression. We further call on this Council and all its member states to move away from the use of the concept of Defamation of Religion and towards demands for combating discrimination and intolerance by anchoring this debate within the framework of the ICCPR.
Thank you Mr. President.
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