Role of State's Vital in Religious Tolerance
New York, Oct 27 2009 5:10PM
Governments have a central role to play in either preventing or contributing to religious friction, an independent United Nations expert said today, noting that a State’s commitments to non-discrimination, as well as its policies and messages, can promote tolerance.
Asma Jahangir, the UN Special
Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, told a news
conference in New York that there are preventive measures
governments can take to avoid further polarization on the
basis of religion before it erupts into violence.
She
also noted that while governments are talking about issues
such as defamation of religion, there is “less addressing
of the issue of religious incitement to violence,
discrimination and hatred.”
In her presentation to
the General Assembly last Friday, Ms. Jahangir discussed
warning signs and prevention, as well as how religion is
being used for political purposes.
“It is quite
clear that as long as discrimination on religious grounds
persists at the national or global levels, tensions will
deepen and, indeed, also be exploited by various religious,
political as well as militant forces,” she had told
delegates.
Ms. Jahangir added today that governments
must meet this challenge with political announcements or
messages that are “in the right direction.”
While
policies are one tool in the hands of governments to deal
with the issue, she noted that they also have at their
disposal political statements, education and inter-faith
dialogues, as well as bringing young people together for
discussions on each other’s religions, among
others.
A related issue is the indoctrination of
children into hating other religions, she said. “The
government has an obligation under the Convention on the
Rights of the Child to protect children from this kind of
mental abuse.”
She also discussed how women have
become central to the prohibition or the allowing of
religious symbols. “There are countries that simply will
punish women if they do not wear a headscarf and there are
other countries where
women, if she wears a headscarf, will be penalized or
sanctioned,” the Special Rapporteur pointed out.
“It has to be balanced,” she said, noting that
this is an issue related to freedom of expression, as long
as that right is not impinging on the rights of others.
In addition, she raised the issue of using technology
for incitement to violence, and what capacity States have to
tackle this in a way that does not impinge on the freedom of
expression.
ENDS