UN Weakens Freedom of Expression to Coddle Islam

This is how we protect the human rights of Muslims from themselves

The United Nations Human Rights Council has been busy protecting the rights of religion...well, not religion - just Islam.

Muslims furious over everything, but especially the 2007 cartoon publications in a Danish newspaper of Prophet Muhammad, galvanized the Islamic countries within the Council to muscle through a resolution opposed by most non-Muslim countries.

According to the International Herald Tribune: This is

There are 17 Muslim countries in the 47-nation human rights council. Their alliance with China, Cuba, Russia and most of the African members means they can almost always achieve a majority.

Human Rights Watch said the resolution could endanger the basic rights of individuals.

The initial resolution was a "mandate renewal" and was sponsored and co-sponsored by over 50 countries, including Canada, Uganda, The U.S., France, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Germany, the U.K. and Australia.

China and Pakistan, however, manuevering on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Egypt, Algeria, South Africa, Belarus and the Cuban delegation, insisted on a weakened [restricted] freedom of expression resolution. They won. The "West" lost.

UN Watch reports that "Western states agreed to add a preambular paragraph:

Mindful also that article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides that exercize of the right to freedom of expression carries with it special duties and responsibilities and may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but that these shall be only such as are provided by law and are necessary for respect of the rights or reputations of others, or for the protection of national security or of public order, or public health and morals, and that article 20 provides that any propaganda for war or advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.

A question: If the above is prohibited by law - whose law and how is such a law enforced?

Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism - or any other religion - are not mentioned - only Islam.

Article 19 reports that they, in conjunction with the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) "condemns the resolution," and they point to the fact that the UN Human Rights Council spreads their hearings over several weeks - making it difficult for "most civil society organisations" to sustain effective advocacy and lobbying strategy...."

Iran is a member of The UN Human Rights Council. In 2007, the Council dropped Cuba and Belarus from their blacklist of human rights abusers, BUT at the same time, blatantly targeted Israel for "permanent indictment under a special agenda item." The details of this condemnation are astounding. You can read it United Nations Seals the Condemnation of Israel.

At the same link, Anne Bayerfsky, writing for the Wall Street Journal and Eye on the UN:

The political lesson here is that the U.S. and Canada don't have the power to push the council to protect human rights, and the European Union would rather sacrifice Israel and hide its own weakness by joining the consensus.

And...

Israel holds the distinction of being the only country on the planet that the U.N. deems a human rights abuser:...not genocide in Sudan, not child slavery in China, nor the persecution of democracy dissidents in Egypt and elsewhere.

So, the UN sees it as their mission to place the religious rights of some [Islam] above the religious rights of all others, and definitely above your individual rights.

Cross-posted at Reject the UN

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