FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 24, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC –The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)  welcomed the UN Human Rights Council’s significant step away from the pernicious “defamation of religions” concept.  Today, the Council adopted a resolution on religious intolerance that does not include this dangerous concept.   The defamation concept undermines individual rights to freedom of religion and expression; exacerbates religious intolerance, discrimination, and violence; and provides international support for domestic blasphemy laws that often have led to gross human rights abuses.  The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has promoted this flawed concept at the United Nations for more than a decade.