Combating intolerance against persons based on religion or belief

“It is vital to address intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization of, and discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against, persons based on religion or belief with a human rights-based approach. Nelson Mandela famously said that ‘No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion’. In addition, nobody is born knowing how to manage religious diversity, which can have a huge positive potential for human rights but also be the source of serious tensions. These truths underline the importance of inclusive peer-to-peer learning on faith and human rights.”

Report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, A/HRC/49/86.

Since March 2011, the General Assembly and Human Rights Council have adopted resolutions on combating intolerance, negative stereotyping, stigmatization, discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons, based on religion or belief. In resolution 78/214 of 19 December 2023, the General Assembly:

1. Calls upon all States to take the following actions, as called for by the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, to foster a domestic environment of religious tolerance, peace and respect by:
   • Encouraging the creation of collaborative networks to build mutual understanding, promoting dialogue and inspiring constructive action towards shared policy goals and the pursuit of tangible outcomes, such as servicing projects in the fields of education, health, conflict prevention, employment, integration and media education;
   • Creating an appropriate mechanism within Governments to, inter alia, identify and address potential areas of tension between members of different religious communities and assisting with conflict prevention and mediation;
   • Encouraging the training of government officials in effective outreach strategies;
   • Encouraging the efforts of leaders to discuss within their communities the causes of discrimination and developing strategies to counter those causes;
   • Speaking out against intolerance, including advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence;
   • Adopting measures to criminalize incitement to imminent violence based on religion or belief;
   • Understanding the need to combat denigration and the negative religious stereotyping of persons, as well as incitement to religious hatred, by strategizing and harmonizing actions at the local, national, regional and international levels through, inter alia, education and awareness-raising;
   • Recognizing that the open, constructive and respectful debate of ideas, as well as interreligious, interfaith and intercultural dialogue, at the local, national, regional and international levels, can play a positive role in combating religious hatred, incitement and violence;
2. Also calls upon all States:
   • To take effective measures to ensure that public functionaries, in the conduct of their public duties, do not discriminate against individuals on the basis of religion or belief;
   • To foster religious freedom and pluralism by promoting the ability of members of all religious communities to manifest their religion and to contribute openly and on an equal footing to society;
   • To encourage the representation and meaningful participation of individuals, irrespective of their religion or belief, in all sectors of society;
   • To make a strong effort to counter religious profiling, which is understood to be the invidious use of religion as a criterion in conducting questioning, searches and other investigative law enforcement procedures;
3. Further calls upon all States to adopt measures and policies to promote full respect for and protection of places of worship and religious sites, cemeteries and shrines and to take protective measures in cases where they are vulnerable to vandalism or destruction;
4. Calls for strengthened international efforts to foster a global dialogue for the promotion of a culture of tolerance and peace at all levels, based on respect for human rights and diversity of religions and beliefs.

The Secretary-General has submitted annual reports to the General Assembly that include information provided by the High Commissioner on steps taken by States to combat intolerance, negative stereotyping, stigmatization, discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons, based on religion or belief. Furthermore, the High Commissioner for Human Rights has prepared and submitted to the Human Rights Council comprehensive follow-up reports with elaborated conclusions based upon information provided by States on the efforts and measures taken for the implementation of the action plan outlined above, and views on potential follow-up measures for further improvement of the implementation of that plan.

Pursuant to General Assembly resolution 78/214, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights sent notes verbales to all permanent missions on 16 February 2024 (in English, Français and Spanish), inviting them to forward contributions to the forthcoming report of the Secretary-General by 16 April 2024. A related call for inputs was also circulated to national human rights institutions and civil society organizations.