[JURIST] The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday adopted a resolution denouncing discriminatory governmental policies directed at Muslim populations. In a 20-17 vote with eight abstentions, the council condemned Switzerland’s ban on the construction of minarets and encouraged efforts to cultivate a “culture of tolerance.” The resolution states that the council:
Strongly condemns in this regard the ban on the construction of minarets of mosques and other recent discriminatory measures, which are manifestations of Islamophobia that stand in sharp contradiction to international human rights obligations concerning freedoms of religion, belief, conscience and expression, and stresses that such discriminatory measures would fuel discrimination, extremism and misperception leading to polarization and fragmentation with dangerous unintended and unforeseen consequences.The resolution was introduced by Pakistani representative Zamir Akram on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Akram noted that the declaration is intended to fight “defamation of all religions.”In December, a Swiss Muslim filed a complaint at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) challenging the ban on the grounds that it violates his freedoms of religion and from discrimination under Articles 9, 13, and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Earlier that month, a group of Swiss intellectuals called for the ban’s reversal, while Swiss Supreme Court President Lawrence Meyer announced that two suits have been filed in federal court challenging the ban’s legality. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has condemned the ban as a form of religious discrimination. In 2008, the Swiss government announced that Swiss nationalist parties had gathered enough signatures on their initiative against the construction of minarets to force a national referendum on whether the country’s constitution should be amended to ban the structures. The initiative was originally sponsored by the anti-immigrant Swiss People’s Party (SVP).