Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here!
(View past Libertarian pings here)
Posted on 10/05/2009 4:17:13 PM PDT by SJackson
At the UN, the Obama administration backs limits on free speech.
Eye on the UN
For Immediate Release:
October 5, 2009
Contact: Anne Bayefsky
info@EYEontheUN.org
You Can't Say That:
At the UN, the Obama administration backs limits on free speech.
This article, by Anne Bayefsky, originally appeared in The Weekly Standard.
The Obama administration has marked its first foray into the UN human rights establishment by backing calls for limits on freedom of expression. The newly-minted American policy was rolled out at the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council, which ended in Geneva on Friday. American diplomats were there for the first time as full Council members and intent on making friends.
President Obama chose to join the Council despite the fact that the Organization of the Islamic Conference holds the balance of power and human rights abusers are among its lead actors, including China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia. Islamic states quickly interpreted the president's penchant for "engagement" as meaning fundamental rights were now up for grabs. Few would have predicted, however, that the shift would begin with America's most treasured freedom.
For more than a decade, a UN resolution on the freedom of expression was shepherded through the Council, and the now defunct Commission on Human Rights which it replaced, by Canada. Over the years, Canada tried mightily to garner consensus on certain minimum standards, but the "reformed" Council changed the distribution of seats on the UN's lead human rights body. In 2008, against the backdrop of the publication of images of Mohammed in a Danish newspaper, Cuba and various Islamic countries destroyed the consensus and rammed through an amendment which introduced a limit on any speech they claimed was an "abuse . . . [that] constitutes an act of racial or religious discrimination."
The Obama administration decided that a revamped freedom of expression resolution, extracted from Canadian hands, would be an ideal emblem for its new engagement policy. So it cosponsored a resolution on the subject with none other than Egypt--a country characterized by an absence of freedom of expression.
Privately, other Western governments were taken aback and watched the weeks of negotiations with dismay as it became clear that American negotiators wanted consensus at all costs. In introducing the resolution on Thursday, October 1--adopted by consensus the following day--the ranking U.S. diplomat, Chargé d'Affaires Douglas Griffiths, crowed:
"The United States is very pleased to present this joint project with Egypt. This initiative is a manifestation of the Obama administration's commitment to multilateral engagement throughout the United Nations and of our genuine desire to seek and build cooperation based upon mutual interest and mutual respect in pursuit of our shared common principles of tolerance and the dignity of all human beings." His Egyptian counterpart, Ambassador Hisham Badr, was equally pleased--for all the wrong reasons. He praised the development by telling the Council that "freedom of expression . . . has been sometimes misused," insisting on limits consistent with the "true nature of this right" and demanding that the "the media must . . . conduct . . . itself in a professional and ethical manner."
The new resolution, championed by the Obama administration, has a number of disturbing elements. It emphasizes that "the exercise of the right to freedom of expression carries with it special duties and responsibilities . . ." which include taking action against anything meeting the description of "negative racial and religious stereotyping." It also purports to "recognize . . . the moral and social responsibilities of the media" and supports "the media's elaboration of voluntary codes of professional ethical conduct" in relation to "combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance."
Pakistan's Ambassador Zamir Akram, speaking on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, made it clear that they understand the resolution and its protection against religious stereotyping as allowing free speech to be trumped by anything that defames or negatively stereotypes religion. The idea of protecting the human rights "of religions" instead of individuals is a favorite of those countries that do not protect free speech and which use religion--as defined by government--to curtail it.
Even the normally feeble European Union tried to salvage the American capitulation by expressing the hope that the resolution might be read a different way. Speaking on behalf of the EU following the resolution's adoption, French Ambassador Jean-Baptiste Mattéi declared that "human rights law does not, and should not, protect religions or belief systems, hence the language on stereotyping only applies to stereotyping of individuals . . . and not of ideologies, religions or abstract values. The EU rejects the concept of defamation of religions." The EU also distanced itself from the American compromise on the media, declaring that "the notion of a moral and social responsibility of the media" goes "well beyond" existing international law and "the EU cannot subscribe to this concept in such general terms."
In 1992 when the United States ratified the main international law treaty which addresses freedom of expression, the government carefully attached reservations to ensure that the treaty could not "restrict the right of free speech and association protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States."
The Obama administration's debut at the Human Rights Council laid bare its very different priorities. Threatening freedom of expression is a price for engagement with the Islamic world that it is evidently prepared to pay.
For more United Nations coverage see www.EYEontheUN.org .
I’m praying for impeachment in 2010!
I’ll be surprised if life goes on as we have known it to the end of the year.
I don’t imagine there’ll be a ‘SElection’ in 2010.
It appears that natural disasters, economic disasters and WWIII will all be bearing down upon us good and strong by then.
If there is some sort of SElection, it will be a huge sham of some sort . . .
. . . unless God has some surprise up His bigger sleeve on that score.
I believe the puppet masters that have put the designated destroyer in power will be taking him . . . off the stage . . . quite dramatically . . . in the near term.
They don’t really like blacks. They just use them for horrific ends.
They would gleefully start a race war just for the death and blood of it.
The times we are living in scare the pants off me too.
I do find comfort in the fact that Obama will be thown under the bus if members of congress seek reelection. They seem to turn on a dime if the voters threaten to turn off the money spigot. That comforts me. Sad.
Mark for later...
We have a second amendment to protect the others.
The list, ping
The Senate has been wholesale under the oligarchy’s strict control for many decades. Some might assert all the way back to the beginning.
The House leadership the same.
And, . . . whats his face . . . Ventura asserts in a YOuTube video that the CIA told him they’ve been manipulating elections for a very long time.
The mess is bigger than anyone can imagine.
God alone can clean it up.
How and when . . . except at Armageddon, remains to be seen.]
Expect the internet to become the new underground news.
Please see both post 29 and new tagline.
Pushback thankfully has begun. The tea parties,the angry reaction over Obamacare, and now last week, the IOC’s rejection of Obama’s Chicago hometown’s bid for the 2016 summer olympics, are all signs that the tide is turning against Obama.
THE WORD OF GOD endures forever.
Most folks expect the net to be an early casualty. . . . along with civilian electricity generally.
I don’t know. It’s very strange that every time something goes wrong for him (like the olympic fiasco), the country has some wierd sympathy for him. I seriously expected his rasmussen poll to show -11 or more after that, but majically it was only -6. I don’t understand. I makes me rate him lower, but I guess people feel sorry for him.
Look for “pirate servers” to pop up all over the place like mushrooms.
The most important point here is, they get to define what is free speech and what is not.
I repeat - they are the ones who get to define, and subsequently tell us, what we can and cannot say!
It becomes incumbent upon all of us to inform everyone we know about this little news tidbit, especially those who voted this wannabe dictator into office.
After that - lock and load! The clock is ticking down, and we don't have much time! Let's organize to take on the organizers!
CA....
Who knows about the company and Ventura. Stranger things have happened.
The oligarchy is certainly in sufficient control of the company for that to have been the case.
I have HOPE. LOTS OF HOPE
JUST NOT
IN THE SYSTEM.
The system has been shredded, trashed, co-opted, obliterated for decades. It’s just now becoming more evident and obvious.
It is not likely to get better until after Armageddon.
God MAY . . . MIGHT . . . be setting things up for pockets of refuge here and there to be HIS KINGDOM TAKING OVER some geography and certain spheres of reality . . . BEFORE Armageddon. Short of THAT . . . only after Armageddon will things get better.
And what’s left of the USA will be EXTREMELY STARKLY DIFFERENT.
HOPE TO BE REAL HOPE . . .
MUST BE BASED ON SOME . . . UHHH . . . REALITY.
OUR ONLY HOPE IS JESUS CHRIST . . . AND HIS ANGEL ARMIES.
I would hope so . . . however, the system controls all the infrastructure.
Are they going to connect via shortwave? And from that how to individuals’ homes?
Should be interesting.
ExCUUUUUUSSE ME!!!
Please get your spelling right.
Sometimes watching everyone get shocked and all-of-a-sudden bent out of shape over this kind of stuff is like seeing a drunk wake up and get pissed off to find himself lying in a pool of his own puke and urine.
Make no mistake about it....the American serfs have created the mess they are in....
Like lambs to the slaughter....Baaaaa....Baaaa....
Tick...Tock...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.