UN appoints Frank La Rue as Freedom of Expression Rapporteur

After some last-minute consultation, a very angry looking Egyptian and a statement by Uruguay strongly supporting his candidacy, Frank La Rue was elected new UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression. Good choice; he's a strong believer in human rights, freedom of expression and will have the wherewithal to interpret his new mandate wisely.

Free expression - religion rumblings continue (so what else is new), names of UN candidates published

Further to the UN Human Rights Council amending the Mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression (the proceedings of which I posted a video of earlier), both the Council itself and Pakistan, which sponsored the mutilating amendment, have recently defended themselves against the criticism. The director of Pakistan's Foreign Ministry's human rights department said the abuse of free expression to defame religions, for example in the film Fitna, was seriously divisive to societies and needed to be checked. The chair of the Human Rights Council, Doru-Romulus Costea, reportedly called the criticism "premature". The Council appoints a new rapporteur June 18; the front runner is Frank William La Rue Levy, former Chair of the Guatemalan Presidential Committee on Human Rights. Other candidates are Alfred Maurice de Zayas and Judy McGregor.

In other news... Danish press report that the Jordanian prosecutor has summonsed the cartoonists and editor behind the recent republication of the Mohamed cartoons. The purpose of this: not necessarily getting them before a Jordanian court, but to keep going the discussion on the interplay between freedom of expression and (the claimed right to be free from insult on) religion. My two cents on that: the cartoons were and are a legitimate exercise of freedom of expression. While surely offensive they did not incite hatred against anyone, other than against the cartoonists and the country they were from but incitement of hatred against oneself is not the kind of incitement that is illegal under international law....

Danish cartoons complaint inadmissible

The United Nations Human Rights Committee declared inadmissible a complaint from two Danish nationals who alleged that the cartoons published in Jyllands-Posten (you know, the Danish cartoons - these) had resulted in discrimination and attacks on their reputation, and that they had been denied an effective domestic remedy for incitement of hatred against them. The admissibility decision does not go into the merits of the complaint but finds that domestic remedies have not been exhausted.

Ahmad and Abdol-Hamid v. Denmark, Communication no. 1487/2006, 18 April 2008.

UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression

Much has been written about the mutilation of the SR's mandate (this was the original draft, sponsored by Canada and others). Live video of it happening has been archived here: the 'fun' starts at 40 minutes, when Pakistan introduces the OIC amendment requiring the mandate to also report on certain abuses of free speech, and it really hots up at around the one hour six minutes mark with the unscripted introduction of a subsequent Cuban amendment stressing "the importance for all forms of media to repeat and to deliver information in a fair and partial manner" (it should probably be 'impartial' - whatever. The Cuban amendment has so far been reported officially only in this press release). The Cubans had given no notice whatsoever of their amendment, and this causes all manner of procedural confusion over whether it should be allowed or not. The Chinese intervene to support the amendment while the Slovenians, who hold the EU presidency at the moment and speak for the 'pro speech group', frantically wave to get the floor but are ignored. The President eventually exercises his discretion and allows the amendment causing the Slovenians to object, but to no avail.

What a mess ... I can't wait to find out who they'll appoint as rapporteur. This will happen at the 8th session, on June 18 according to the provisional programme of work.

UN Security council notices journalists

In what I think is a bit of a first, the UN Security Council has recognised that journalists need protection in war zones. Resolution 1738(2006), adopted on 23 December 2006,

"1. Condemns intentional attacks against journalists, media professionals and associated personnel, as such, in situations of armed conflict, and calls upon all parties to put an end to such practices;
2. Recalls in this regard that journalists, media professionals and associated personnel engaged in dangerous professional missions in areas of armed conflict shall be considered as civilians and shall be respected and protected as such, provided that they take no action adversely affecting their status as civilians. This is without prejudice to the right of war correspondents accredited to the armed forces to the status of prisoners of war provided for in article 4.A.4 of the Third Geneva Convention;
3. Recalls also that media equipment and installations constitute civilian objects, and in this respect shall not be the object of attack or of reprisals, unless they are military objectives".

The full text can be accessed through here.