The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has hailed the adoption by the UN Human Rights Council of the resolution on "Countering religious hatred constituting incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence" as an important milestone towards strengthening collective efforts to reject religious intolerance and the desecration of holy books.
The resolution was adopted at the 53rd session of the Human Rights Council following a request by the OIC Group of countries in Geneva in response to a series of provocative acts of desecration of copies of the Quran in European and other countries.
The adopted resolution condemns the recent public and premeditated acts of desecration of the Quran, and it underscores the need to hold the perpetrators of these acts of religious hatred to account in line with the obligations of states arising from international human-rights law.
The resolution urges the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to speak out against the advocacy of religious hatred. It requests the Human Rights Council to identify drivers and manifestations of religious hatred and to outline existing gaps in laws, policies, practices, and law enforcement that impede the prevention and prosecution of public and premeditated acts. It also asks the council to propose measures aimed at countering acts of religious hatred that hinder the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Through the resolution, states are encouraged to adopt national laws and policies to prevent and counter acts and advocacy of religious hatred.
The OIC has always urged the international community to resolutely tackle the repeated incidents of desecration of holy books and the rise of xenophobia, Islamophobia, racism, discrimination based on religion or belief, hate speech, and incitement to violence.
It has called for the condemnation and rejection of the abhorrent Islamophobic actions that incite hatred, exclusion, and racism and clearly undermine diverse communities' inter-religious harmony, dialogue, and peaceful coexistence. Such premeditated acts cannot be accepted under any justification nor conflated with the exercise of the right to freedom of expression or opinion.
The OIC said it strongly believes that the adoption of the historic resolution by the Human Rights Council will open a new era in terms of dialogue and collective efforts aimed at curbing manifestations of religious hatred and incitement to violence.
In these challenging times, there is an urgent need to unite in the upholding of the values of tolerance and peaceful coexistence among peoples and civilizations, it said.
Following the adoption of the resolution, OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha commended all the states that sponsored the draft resolution and those that have supported it. He also commended Saudi Arabia, the current Chair of the Islamic Summit and Chair of the OIC Executive Committee, for its commitment and initiative to convene an urgent meeting of the Executive committee on this matter, which led to the successful debate at the UN Human Rights Council.
He reiterated the OIC's call to the international community to stand firm against the manifestations of discrimination, intolerance, and incitement to hatred and to unite in upholding the values of tolerance and peaceful coexistence among peoples and civilizations.
