2009.04 - UNHRC: Freedom of Religion or Belief

12 March 2009

Report by Amalia Rasheed

Asma Jahangir, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, said that in her annual report she provided a preliminary analysis on discrimination based on religion or belief and the  impact such discrimination has on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. She highlighted the importance of initiatives in the fields of Education, Public Awareness and Interreligious Dialogue, as well as State action against advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence. Applying a gender perspective, the Special Rapporteur also addressed discriminatory and harmful practices against women.

Some of the recurrent issues illustrated the adverse impact of discrimination based on religion or belief have on the enjoyment of the rights to work, to adequate food and housing, to health, to education and to cultural life. Discrimination based on religion or belief often emanates from deliberate State policies to ostracize certain religious or belief communities and to restrict or deny their access to health services or public posts, for example. The state and non-state have the duty to refrain from such discrimination, and this includes the state taking action to prevent the discriminatory actions by non-governmental actors.

Ms. Jahangir strongly emphasised that “… all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. Consequently, there should not be a different approach between discrimination affecting the enjoyment of civil and political rights on the one hand, and discrimination affecting the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights on the other.”

Margaret Sekaggya, Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, said today she was presenting her first annual report, as well as her communications report — she had sent a record number, which signalled an increased awareness of the mandate and work, but also showed that the situation of human rights defenders was far from ideal in many parts of the world, indeed in all regions, and that a lot remained to be done in the protection of human rights defenders. She provided the Council with some preliminary thoughts as to how the Universal Periodic Review could contribute to the improvement of the situation of human rights defenders, as the latter had great expectations from the new process.

In the interactive dialogue, speakers praised the work of the Special Rapporteurs on freedom of religion and belief, and on human rights defenders. A number of national delegations outlined their programmes and laws to ensure freedom of religion and belief and to protect human rights defenders and allow them to work freely. Some said that states had an obligation to limit and restrict freedom of expression when it came to addressing advocates of religious hatred. A number of speakers said the report of the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders was overly focused on the Universal Periodic Review, which was an inter-governmental process. Also, recommendations made to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and to the treaty bodies on this process were not covered under her mandate. One speaker said that the threat of terrorism and extremism was great in the world today, but in no way should extremism be associated with any specific religions.

13 March, 2009

Parallel to the session of the HRC, an informal meeting was organised by ‘Rights and Democracy’ on Human Rights and Religion: an interactive Dialogue

Ms. Asma Jahangir, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, was the keynote guest for the event, in conversation with Professor Mashood Baderin (School of Oriental and African Studies, London) and Susanne Tamas (Director, Baha’i Community of Canada).

Freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief are two fundamental rights that are often juxtaposed. For example, the controversy surrounding the Danish cartoons incident in February 2006 highlighted, in no uncertain terms, the conflict between freedom of expression and religion.  During this discussion, light was shed on a historical perspective with examples of how a restriction of the freedom of expression would essentially be contrary to Islamic tradition. It was noted that, whereas expression that amounts to the violation of any Human Rights, such as incitement to violence, is already covered by law, from the perspective of international law, expression that amounts to defamation of religions, cannot be easily defined and is therefore difficult to implement. It became clear in the discussion that increased communication was needed and that inter-cultural and inter-faith dialogue should be promoted all the more towards a better understanding between cultures.

The meeting also provided the opportunity to introduce a Rights & Democracy's report called "Religion and Human Rights," that is available in English, French and Arabic.

The discussion was filmed and, as it was particularly interesting, I recommend a full viewing:

http://www.dd-rd.ca/site/what_we_do/index.php?id=2965&subsection=themes&subsubsection=theme_documents