Dec. 07, 2009 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States

Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN

Religious liberty experts warn a so-called "defamation of religions" resolution slated for consideration by the United Nations General Assembly this month will invite restriction of religious speech worldwide.

Meant to punish those whose speech may offend the religious sensibilities of listeners, passage of the resolution would create a troubling precedent for restricting freedom of religious expression, said James D. Standish, director of UN relations for the Seventh-day Adventist world church.

"The resolution itself is not legally binding, but it does create momentum for the effort to achieve a new international legal norm that restricts freedom of religious speech," Standish said.

If passed, the resolution would not only establish a legal precedent for other nations to follow, but would also effectively legitimize policies in some nations that already seek to control religious speech, he added.

"We can't afford to rely on this failed national model as a basis for the creation of new international legal standards," Standish said.

Earlier this year, members of the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA)'s Board of Experts drafted a statement warning that laws seeking to control religious speech could be enforced arbitrarily and unequally, likely resulting in the infringement of individual freedoms of expression, which they said include the right to compare and critique religious beliefs and practices.

The group concluded that existing international human rights law sufficiently protects faith groups from speech that results in acts of discrimination or violence and advised national leaders and religious liberty experts to reject any forthcoming defamation of religions laws.

In the run-up to the mid-December vote, Standish met with representatives from a number of UN member state, seeking to raise awareness of the resolution's implications and discuss alternatives for strengthening existing protections of religious freedom.

Between 2006 and 2009, the defamation of religions resolution has seen a 27 percent overall decline in support, largely due to the work of religious freedom advocates, a recent IRLA news release said.

"It's good to see the UN moving in the right direction of this issue ... but this struggle is far from over," said John Graz, IRLA secretary-general and director for the Adventist Church's department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty. "Religious freedom is a fragile right that we can't take for granted."

Comments (0)