Defamation of religions in UN documents: context and trends

During the last decade the United Nations, as well as other international human rights institutions, have been dealing with the issue of increasing forms of intolerance and discrimination on religious grounds. Therefore, the UN Human Rights Council and the General Assembly voted a series of Resolutions in which they condemned any forms of defamation of religions or beliefs, considering them among the causes for social disharmony and violations of human rights. Nevertheless, promoting the implementation of national penal laws to sanction the defamation of religions can turn out to be a way of giving powerful international legitimacy to national blasphemy laws, which are often used by religious majorities and governments to prevent internal dissent, and to stem the activities of religious minorities. Recently, the attention has been shifted to the aggravated forms of discrimination towards which racial intolerance and religious hatred can lead. Since the UN arguments seem to be leading in this direction, it is important to distinguish the main concepts at stake, like racist speech and incitement to religious hatred, in order to avoid confusion and a possible “chilling effect” on the right to freedom of expression.