Ad Hoc Cmte: War on Free Speech

 The UN's war on freedom of expression is waged in two parallel plains: resolutions and international covenants.  The former have no enforcement mechanism; the latter have the force of international law binding on signatories.   On the covenant plain, the weapon is the Ad Hoc Cmte. and the mechanism is ICERD.  The OIC and its allies seek to insert Islam's blasphemy laws into ICERD through a binding protocol which would establish new norms criminalizing criticism of Islam.

    This plain of conflict is under reported and little known.  the action takes place below the radar. Unfortunately, it is the most dangerous to our cherished liberty because its outcome will have the force of international law. 
  
    The committee holds two ten day sessions each year.  Those sessions have been marked by conflict which has resulted in narrowing the scope of its deliberations, excluding Islamophobia.  This resolution is an expression of frustration and demand for results.

    Once ICERD is amended to criminalize criticism of Islam, the creators of Fitna, Innocence of Muslims and the Motoons could be persecuted in national and international courts and sentenced to prison or death. 

    The HRC and GA resolutions give immoral support to national blasphemy laws used to persecute indigenous Christians in Indonesia & Pakistan, but they have no teeth. The mission of the Ad Hoc Committee has venomous fangs.

http://www.eyeontheun.org/assets/attachments/documents/10556ad_hoc_committee.pdf

2lStSession of the Human Rights Council
Agenda Item 9
Elaboration of international complementary standards to the lnternational
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

 

Recalling its decision 31103 of 8 December 2006, in which it decided to establish, in accordance
with the provisions of paragraph 199 of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, the
Ad Hoc Committee of the Human Rights Council on the Elaboration of Complementary
Standards, with a mandate to elaborate, as a matter of priority and necessity, complementary
standards in the form of either a convention or additional protocol(s) to the lnternational
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, filling the existing gaps in
the Convention and also providing new normative standards aimed at combating all forms of
contemporary racism, including incitement to racial and religious hatred,(NHRCiResll0;30)

normative standards

    The best way to translate this code phrase is to provide examples from Shari'ah: Reliance of the Traveller, O8.7, which lists 20 acts entailing apostasy, which carries the death penalty.  The provisions of O8.7 are applied to dhimmis through O11.10

-5- or mentions something impermissible about Allah, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), or Islam.

    What is impermissible? 

-4- to revile Allah or His messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace);

-5- to deny the existence of Allah, His beginingless eternality, His endless eternality, or to deny any of His attributes which the consensus of Muslims ascribes to Him (dis: v1);

-6- to be sarcastic about Allah's name, His command, His interdiction, His promise, or His threat;

-7- to deny any verse of the Koran or anything which by scholarly consensus (def: b7) belongs to it, or to add a verse that does belong to it;

-16- to revile the religion of Islam;

incitement to racial and religious hatred

    Translation of this code phrase is best accomplished by reference to a concrete example: Fitna, the short video by Geert Wilders which juxtaposed verses from the Qur'an & hadith with the rabid rants of Imams and their violent consequences.     Fitna exposed incitement, it did not incite.  Observe what the Secretary General of the UN said about it. 

Reuters quotes U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about Fitna:"There is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence," Ban said in a statement. "The right of free expression is not at stake here."

Ban's spokesman used similar terms to describe Innocence of Muslims:
He condemns the hateful film that appears to have been deliberately designed to sow bigotry and bloodshed.

    The clear intention is to criminalize all criticism of Islam.  The condemned videos do not incite violence, they expose incitement.  Linking Islam to incitement to violence constitutes reviling Islam, which carries the death penalty.  By that standard, I could be persecuted, fined and imprisoned for exposing the fact that the practice of Islam entails violence and terrorism, like this:

    Islam is inseverable, 2:85 condemns selectivity; Muslims must accept the entire package, including genocidal, terrorist conquest.  Religious violence & terrorism are incited in the Qur'an (3:151, 8:12, 39, 57, 59, 60, 65, 67, 9:5, 29, 111, 120, 123, 33:26, 47:4, 49:15, 59:2, 59:13 & 61:10), in hadith (Sahih Bukhari 1.8.387, 4.52.177, 1.7.331 & 4.52.220, Sunan Abu Dawud 14.2635, 23.3455 & 14.2497), and Shari'ah (Reliance of the Traveller: O9.0-9 & Hedaya Vol. 2, pg 140-230).

    Under the standards demanded by the OIC, Arab League, Non-Aligned Group and European Union, this blog post would be illegal because of the proceeding paragraph. 

Underlining the imperative need for the Ad Hoc Committee to achieve its mandate (NHRCI
13118 updated)
I. Decides that the Ad Hoc Committee shall convene its fifth session from 13 to 24 May
2013; (AIHRCI 13118 updated),
l.(bis) Takes note of the report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Human Rights
Council on the Elaboration of lnternational Complementary Standards to the
lnternational Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,
2. Invites the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Ad Hoc Committee to
 hold informal consultations, within existing resources, with regional and
political coordinators during the inter-sessional period between the fourth
and fifth sessions of the Ad Hoc Committee, with the aim to
prepare the fifth session and collect concrete proposals for
discussion on the topics of xenophobia, establishment, designation or
maintaining of national mechanisms with competencies to protect against and
prevent all forms &-and manifestations of racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance; and procedural gaps with regard to
the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination, in accordance with its mandate; NEW (AIHRCl21159)

The Cmte.'s fourth session produced a 47 page report :
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session21/A-HRC-21-59_en.pdf