WAN reminds the UN that the Council’s proper role is to defend freedom of expression and not to support the censorship of opinion at the request of autocracies.

On 28 March 2008, the UN Human Rights Council approved an amendment proposed by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference requiring its Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Freedom of Opinion and Expression to “report on instances where the abuse of the right of freedom of expression constitutes an act of racial or religious discrimination.”

This resolution goes against the spirit of the role of the Special Rapporteur by requiring him to look at abusive expression rather than focusing on the endemic problem of abusive limits on expression imposed by governments, including many of those on the Council. The resolution also lacks balance in focusing on restrictions to freedom of expression, rather than on the idea of an appropriate balance between the positive protection for the right to freedom of expression and the need to limit incitement to racial and religious hatred.

The WAN Board is concerned at what appears to be the emergence of a negative trend against freedom of expression in the UN Human Rights Council. In March 2007, the Council has already passed a resolution, sponsored by Pakistan on behalf of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, which opened the door to the restriction freedom of expression by governments on the grounds that it might offend religious sensibilities.

WAN calls on the Council President, Doru Costea, and the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, to take action to protect the mandate of the Special Rapporteur and to ensure that international standards of freedom of expression are fully supported by the UN Human Rights Council and not undermined by it.