An inside look at the UN's new "defamation of religion" resolution

During the last two weeks in March, I participated in the negotiations over the new UN Human Rights Council resolution combating "defamation of religions."  I just published some of my impressions at Religion Dispatches.

UN Human Rights Council does it again

The UN Human Rights Council has done it again. It has again resolved to "combat the defamation of religions." I actually sat through hours of negotiations over the draft text of this resolution in Geneva, and I still don't know what in God's name the defamation of religions is.

Similar resolutions have been passed by the Council since 1999 and by the General Assembly since 2005. The resolution passed with 23 in favor, 11 against, and 13 abstentions, gaining two additional votes since the last time it was adopted by the Council.

Indian journalists arrested for offending Muslims after reprinting Hari article

The editor and publisher of a top English-language Indian daily were arrested and briefly detained in Calcutta after the paper, The Statesman, reprinted Johann Hari's article from U.K.'s Independent, entitled, appropriately enough, "Why should I respect these oppressive religions?" As reported by the BBC, the editor, Ravindra Kumar, felt compelled to apologize for an "editorial misjudgement."

Hari quotes me. Does this make me an accomplice?

The Independent's Johann Hari on respecting religion

Writing for The Independent (UK), the excellent Johann Hari exposes the erosion of free expression at the United Nations, citing the recent report by me and Colin Koproske.

What will change everything?

I contributed a response to the Edge.com "World Question" for 2009: What will change everything? What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to see? The answers were released at midnight on New Year's Eve.

Meanwhile, I've taken a leave of absence from my position at the Center for Inquiry, and left New York City for a spell to explore some options for my next project.

The Netherlands threatens to pull out of Durban II

The Dutch government has threatened to pull out of Durban II conference on racism if changes are not made to the controversial draft resolution.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that four human rights experts have called on the U.N. to stop the discourse on defamation of religions.

Heilige Huisjes

Literally "holy houses," figuratively, "sacred cows"--subjects too sensitive to be discussed in Dutch society. The holy houses were inspected yesterday at a forum at the Internationale School voor Wijsbegeerte. My talk on "the open conscience and the open society" was commented on by Nahed Selim, a women's rights activist; Rabbi Raphael Evers; Martijn de Koning, an anthropologist, and Coskun Çörü, a member of Dutch parliament with the Christian Democrat party.