Wednesday, December 20, 2006

A new human rights covenant concentrating on religious freedom?

Professor Brian Lepard spoke of it in De Poort, here's the news from the Baha'i World News Service about the commemoration in Prague of the 25th anniversary of the 1981 UN Declaration on Religious Tolerance.
Excerpt of the BWNS article
Some 350 participants representing more than 60 governments, UN agencies, and various international non-governmental organizations -- including the Baha'i International Community -- gathered on 25 November 2006 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.
On the same day we also learn, that the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution expressing "serious concern" over the human rights situation in Iran, including the escalation of violations against Iranian Baha'is.
Excerpt of BWNS article
Put forward by Canada and co-sponsored by 43 countries, the resolution calls on Iran to "eliminate, in law and in practice, all forms of discrimination based on religious, ethnic or linguistic grounds, and other human rights violations against persons belonging to minorities, including Arabs, Azeris, Baha'is, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis, and Sunni Muslims."

The resolution takes particular note of the worsening situation facing Iran's 300,000-member Baha'i community, noting "reports of plans by the state to identify and monitor Baha'is," "an increase in cases of arbitrary arrest and detention," and "the denial of freedom of religion or of publicly carrying out communal affairs."
An occasion to continue the discussion started in De Poort on the opportunity to have a new human right covenant concentrating on religious freedom to reinforce the 1981 statement and give those principles binding force.

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