In a joint statement by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) and Centre for Inquiry (CFI) at the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday, 15 March 2011,  IHEU main representative Jack Jeffery challenged the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to broaden the scope of its oft-repeated resolutions on defamation of religion to encompass any actions or conduct leading to incitement to hatred or violence.

When IHEU were prevented on a technicality from delivering a speech on blasphemy and violence in the name of religion at the 16th session of the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, Center for Inquiry kindly agreed to collaborate and deliver a statement jointly crafted by the two organizations. Unfortunately, Georgina Hutchinson, CFI main representative in Geneva was unable to deliver the speech when the session ended early on Friday 11 March, and the speech was actually delivered by Jack Jeffery of IHEU at 9:15 this morning. Here is the speech in full.

The Human Rights Council is an intergovernmental body created by the UN General Assembly in March 2006 “with the main purpose of addressing situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them”. The Council has forty seven member states, each elected for three years from among the member states of the UN. The Council meets in Geneva in March, June and September each year.