Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Despite differences of opinions amongst members, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Wednesday adopted a resolution “countering religious hatred constituting incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence” after the Muslim holy book, The Qur’an, was desecrated in Sweden recently.
India was among the 28 countries that supported the motion against the incident.
According to media reports, the UNHRC approved a resolution on religious hatred and bigotry in the wake of the Sweden incident that triggered protests across the Muslim world.
The United States and the European Union opposed the motion which, they said, conflicts with their positions on human rights and freedom of expression.
Pakistan and other members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries, concerned by the incident last month outside Stockholm’s main mosque, during which an Iraqi immigrant desecrated the holy book on the Eid al-Adha holiday, secured an urgent debate at the UN’s top rights body on Tuesday.
“We must see this clearly for what it is: incitement to religious hatred, discrimination, and attempts to provoke violence,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told the Geneva-based UNHRC via video on Tuesday.
Such acts occurred under “government sanction and with the sense of impunity”, he claimed.
Bhutto Zardari’s remarks were echoed by ministers from Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.
“Stop abusing freedom of expression,” said Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi. “Silence means complicity.”
UN human rights chief Volker Turk told the UNHRC that inflammatory acts against Muslims, as well as other religions or minorities, are “offensive, irresponsible, and wrong”.
The Swedish government condemned the Quran burning as “Islamophobic”, but added that the country had a “constitutionally-protected right to freedom of assembly, expression and demonstration”.
On Tuesday, France’s ambassador Jerome Bonnafont noted that human rights “protect people – not religions, doctrines, beliefs or their symbols … It is neither for the United Nations nor for states to define what is sacred”.
The UNHRC resolutions are not legally binding but are seen as strong political commitments by states.
Tuesday’s motion called on countries to “impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred.”
Those who opposed the motion, besides the US, were Belgium, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Romania, and the UK.
The absentees were Benin, Chile, Georgia, Honduras, Mexico, Nepal, and Paraguay.