“Defamation of religions” resolution at the Human Rights Council rejected by 180 NGOs from 50 different countries: NGOs asking voting members to reject resolution as well

Mar 25, 2009

A "defamation of religions' petition co-drafted by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty gathers momentum as over 180 non governmental organizations from over 50 different countries sign to request that the Human Rights Council reject a resolution on "defamation of religions."

Today (March 25,2009) the Becket Fund co-hosted a press conference at the Palais de Nations in Geneva—the United Nations headquarters in Europe—to present a petition against the “defamation of religions" resolution. The petition requests that the resolution which is before the Human Rights Council presently be rejected.

“Human rights protect people, not ideas,” said L. Bennett Graham, Becket Fund representative to the UN presently in Geneva. “The current resolution before the Human Rights Council is a disaster for people of all faiths.”

As a result of sustained lobbying at the United Nations, in 2008, for the first time, no and abstention votes combined outweighed yes votes on the “defamation of religions” resolutions first in the Human Rights Council and then in the General Assembly. The “defamation of religions” resolution was first introduced by the Organisation for Islamic Conference in 1999 and was originally titled “defamation of Islam.”

The Becket Fund has been a leading advocate against the resolutions and “defamation of religions” concept, and has delivered several interventions before the Human Rights Council (click here for a 2006 intervention, and here for an intervention from the current session) and issued a brief on this topic as well as having testified before various governmental bodies, non-governmental bodies and the press.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a non governmental organization in consultative status before the United Nations and a non-profit public interest law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact L. Bennett Graham, Becket Fund representative to the UN., cell +1.202.412.6542 or contact Kristina Arriaga at karriaga@becketfund.org or cell +1.703.582.8962.

Resources & Documents

• 2009 UN HRC Intervention (PDF, 91.54KB)