Rassbach Addresses Heritage Foundation on UN "Religious Defamation" ResolutionsMay 2, 2008 Eric Rassbach, National Litigation Director at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, told the Heritage Foundation May 2, 2008, that the religious defamation laws currently being considered by the United Nations pose a serious threat to free speech, freedom of religion and other basic human rights.
Rassbach said that the problem with treating “defamation of religion” as a human rights violation “is that it says you can defame an idea rather than a person.” This “forces a government to take a position on whether those religious ideas are worthy of protection or not.”
Rassbach was part of an expert panel called by the Heritage Foundation to discuss “The UN Human Rights Council: Reform or Regression?” Rassbach was called as an expert of religious liberty and the law.
Other panelists included Erica J. Barks-Ruggles, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State; Hillel Neuer, Executive Director, UN Watch; Tad Stahnke, director of the Fighting Discrimination Program at Human Rights First, Dokhi Fassihian, Senior Policy Associate, Democracy Coalition Project.
View the Heritage Foundation video. (Rassbach's presentation begins at 30 minutes and 40 seconds)
Read the Becket Fund Issue Briefing: "Defamation of Religions" here.
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