Pakistan has urged the United Nations to take action against Islamophobia, which has evolved as a new kind of racism marked by hate speech, discrimination, and violence against Muslims.
“Islamophobia is a reality,” Pakistani delegate Mariam Shaikh told the United Nations General Assembly’s Committee on Information on Wednesday.
Ms. Shaikh, the press counselor at the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations, noted that Islamophobia’s forms – hate speech, discrimination, and violence against Muslims — are spreading over the world, resulting in “grave violations” of Muslims’ human rights and religious freedoms.
She asked the Department of Global Communication (DGC) to increase awareness of the problem and promote messages of tolerance, peaceful coexistence, interfaith and cultural harmony among all religions, races, and nations in this respect.
A resolution proposed by Pakistan that declared March 15 as International Day to Combat Islamophobia was unanimously accepted by the 193-member Assembly a few months ago, with the goal of promoting a global culture of tolerance and peace.
She highlighted General Assembly resolution 76/227 as the way to resolving misinformation, adding that certain nations have damaged their own credibility in the pursuit of diplomatic isolation, making the issue of false news and disinformation worthy of UN attention.
“After EU Disinfo Lab’s groundbreaking revelations and comprehensive evidence of targeting UN bodies, member states, core institutions, and core values,” Ms. Shaikh said, referring to the independent non-profit organisation whose two investigative reports from 2019 and 2020 revealed India’s State-sponsored global disinformation campaign against Pakistan.
According to the Pakistani delegate, social media corporations must not allow their commercial aims to compromise human rights, notably by permitting their platforms to be exploited to promote disinformation.
