11-18-2010
Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Michael Posner announced the release of the State Department’s 2010 International Religious Freedom Report.
The report is a stark reminder that it’s a cruel world out there, for people of faith and nonbelievers alike. The State Department’s research profiles cases of discrimination, intimidation, and violence motivated by religious intolerance. The level of tension between different religious communities, between secular and religious communities, and between authorities and religious communities remains of great concern. Both Clinton and Posner reaffirmed their resolve to make sure that the U.S. government treats religious freedom concerns as a top priority and brings up these issues consistently in discussions with foreign public officials.
Watch Hillary Clinton and Mike Posner presenting the report and answering media inquiries:
We agree that the State Department’s Religious Freedom Report comes at crucial moment for religious tolerance. One important issue highlighted in the report is the opposition of the United States to the controversial ‘defamation of religions’ resolution at the United Nations – in effect a global blasphemy code. We at Human Rights First continue to call on governments to oppose the harmful resolution, and to make our case stronger we’ve released a report documenting numerous cases that expose the negative effects of blasphemy laws, presenting over 50 cases that demonstrate how accusations of blasphemy have resulted in arrests and arbitrary detentions and have sparked assaults, murders and mob attacks.
Our advocacy is making an impact, as more delegations at the United Nations are growing weary of the need to criminalize ‘defamation’. Today, Human Rights First is reaching out to delegations with our analysis of the latest version of the resolution. We hope to maintain the momentum we’ve helped build and keep pressing for the resolution’s defeat during the current General Assembly session.
No comments yet
The comments are closed.