Jo presented research at the 16th UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva at the side event, ‘Evolution of the recent debate on defamation of religions‘, on behalf of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), and the SOAS Human Rights Law Clinic.  The study charts the development of discourse on religious defamation at the United Nations, and analyses blasphemy cases in Pakistan, Syria and Algeria using the international human rights legal framework.  It has been published by the Social Science Research Network (available to download here in full), and was well used by NGOs and delegates at the Session in the lead up to a groundbreaking draft resolution that better preserved the right to free expression.

Also on the panel were the Director of the Human Rights Treaties Division at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ibrahim Salama ; Pakistan MP, Bushra Gohar; and Senior Legal Officer at ARTICLE 19, Sejal Parmar. The event was sponsored by the CIHRS, Human Rights Watch, FORUM-ASIA, International Federation for Human Rights and ARTICLE 19.

The paper was written with Julia Alfandari and Regula Atteya.  Jo wrote and researched the defamation discourse at the UN (Section 2.3), and analysed the legal and practical impact of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws using five case studies.

Abstract:

This paper aims to provide a general overview of the current debate on religious defamation laws internationally, and to research and analyze the use and impact of the ‘defamation of religion’ concept and blasphemy laws on freedom of expression in three OIC member states. Part I of the paper will explore the evolution of the concept within the UN in three sections: Section One looks at the positions held by the OIC since the introduction of the initial resolution on defamation of religion at the UN; Section Two explores the counter positions held by NGOs and states in disagreement; and Section Three examines the treatment of this concept in other UN reports, namely from its committees and independent experts, as a measure of the current international consensus. Part II of this project is a study of three selected OIC member states: Algeria, Syria and Pakistan. In this section we present the national laws on religious defamation and blasphemy in each country, including amendments and contemporary moves towards reform. We then follow with a series of recent cases that have employed these laws in each of the three countries, and analyse the use of each in relation to the impact it had on freedom of expression, and other rights and freedoms enshrined in human rights law. By doing so we aim to identify whether the de facto prohibition of defamation relating to religion falls within the spirit of, or conversely is repugnant to each state’s obligations under international human rights law.