Human Rights Council to Hold Urgent Debate on Acts of Religious Hatred on 11 July

GENEVA (5 July 2023) - The United Nations Human Rights Council will hold an urgent debate to “discuss the alarming rise in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred as manifested by recurrent desecration of the Holy Quran in some European and other countries.”

The urgent debate will be held on Tuesday, 11 July, commencing at 15h00 (GMT+2) in room 20 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The meeting is open to the media and will be webcast live on webtv.un.org in the six official languages of the UN.

The urgent debate is being convened per an official request submitted Monday evening (3 July) by Pakistan on behalf of member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), including those that are members of the Human Rights Council.

The programme of work of the ongoing 53rd regular session of the Human Rights Council will be adjusted to include this urgent debate. This urgent debate does not require signatories or formal notifications as is the case for special sessions.

This will be the 9th urgent debate of the Human Rights Council since its creation in 2006.

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For more information and media requests, please contact Pascal Sim, HRC Media Officer, at simp@un.org or David Díaz Martín, HRC Public Information Officer, at david.diazmartin@un.org, or Verena Bongartz, HRC Public Information Officer, at verena.bongartz@un.org