UN rights body adopts Pakistan-led resolution against desecrating Holy Quran

GENEVA: The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has adopted a draft resolution by Pakistan, calling for holding accountable the perpetrators of desecrating the holy texts.

The resolution was passed with 28 votes in favour and 12 votes against while seven countries abstained as the organization held an emergency session to debate incidents of the desecration of the Holy Quran.

Pakistan, speaking on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), has warned against inaction in combating the growing acts of desecrating the holy Quran, saying such public actions were not an expression of free speech.

“Let us be clear, the commission of these willful and public desecrations of a book sacred to billions of people is not an exercise of the right to free speech. They are an affront to our common humanity and human dignity,” Ambassador Khalil Hashmi told the UN Human Rights Council.

Ambassador Hashmi, who is Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN offices in Geneva, spoke after some Western nations expressed misgivings over the motion, saying it encroaches too far on free speech.

Pakistan, acting on behalf of OIC, secured an urgent debate at the 47-member Council after a copy of the holy Quran was burnt outside Stockholm’s main mosque that outraged the Muslim world.

The resolution condemns all manifestations of religious hatred, including “public and premeditated acts of desecration of the Holy Quran”, and underscores the need to hold those responsible to account.

It urges states to adopt laws to “address, prevent and prosecute acts and advocacy of religious hatred that constitute incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence”.

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also weighed in on the hot issue through a video link. “The deliberate desecration of the holy Quran has continued under government sanction and with a sense of impunity,” FM Bilawal said in his national capacity.

“Free speech is as indispensable as hate speech should be indefensible. Our vigour to protect free speech must not lose sight of the imperative to reject hate speech.”

In what was seen as a last-minute OIC call to all states to support the resolution, Ambassador Hashmi, said, “Silence, inaction or complacency is therefore no longer tenable.”

“We are at an inflection point now.” Ambassador Hashmi told the delegates. “There is much at stake nationally, regionally and globally in this inter-connected and inter-dependent world, he said, adding, “Silence, inaction or complacency is therefore no longer tenable.”

He went on to say, “We see the complementary value of affirmative measures such as promoting a culture of peace, mutual respect, understanding, tolerance, interfaith as well as inter-cultural harmony.

“Yet, we must do more to effectively counter the growing scourge of religious hatred, its manifestations as well as its incitement. The states as duty-bearers are bound to protect rights and promote respect by enacting laws and policies to deter such acts of impunity.

“For these reasons, the OIC has called for an urgent and serious conversation at this Council on prevention, deterrence, accountability and redressal measures.”