By Robert Evans
GENEVA (Reuters) - Countries should repeal all laws punishing
blasphemy and people who leave a faith, the United Nations' top expert
on freedom of religion said on Wednesday, thrusting himself into a
debate between many in the Muslim world and the West.
Legislation outlawing apostasy - the act of changing religious
affiliation - and insults against religious figures could be used to
violate the rights of minorities, Heiner Bielefeld said in a report to
the U.N. Human Rights Council.
The comments from the United Nations' special rapporteur on freedom
of religion or belief came amid heightened focus on faith-based laws in
countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, where blasphemy carries the
death penalty.
"States should repeal any criminal law provisions that penalize
apostasy, blasphemy and proselytism, as they may prevent persons
belonging to religious or belief minorities from fully enjoying their
freedom of religion or belief," he said in the report.
Rights campaigners say the blasphemy law in Pakistan is widely used
against religious minorities, including Christians, Ahmadis and more
recently Shiah Muslims, usually on flimsy pretexts.
The posting of an amateurish U.S.-made video mocking the Prophet
Mohammad, and the publication of caricatures of him in France last year
led to violent protests and renewed calls from the Muslim world for a
global law against blasphemy.
Speaking on the fringes of the rights council on Wednesday, Bielefeld
said criminalizing concepts like blasphemy was dangerous for free
speech because there could be no common definition of what it was.
Although a handful of Western countries have blasphemy laws,
originally introduced to bar attacks on Christianity, they have largely
fallen into disuse. Some Muslim groups in Europe call for their
reactivation.
In once strongly Catholic Ireland, where blasphemy is banned under
the 1937 constitution, new legislation introduced in 2010 - partly in
response to appeals from the small Muslim community - set a hefty fine
for offending religious belief.
But Irish officials say that law, now being reconsidered by a special
commission, seems likely to be withdrawn as an obstruction to free
speech.
Bielefeld does not speak for the U.N. but was taken on as an
independent official to report regularly on how freedom of religion was
respected across the world.
(Editing by Andrew Heavens)
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE9251LV20130306?irpc=932
Free speech, human rights,Freedom, equality and accountability. We all human are same.Balochistan act for justice on a wide range of issues.Event and News related to Balochistan and world. Baloch In Balochistan have been disappeared and hanged and or murdered by Pakistan's military and securities agencies and Iran regime. Pakistan rarely allows journalists or human rights organizations to travel freely in Balochistan and coverage in the world press is inadequate.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Trouble brews for Iran-Pakistan pipeline
TEHRAN, March 7 (UPI) -- After years of
delays and setbacks, not least bitter U.S. opposition, Pakistan is set
to start work on its section of a $7.5 billion pipeline that will pump
badly needed natural gas from Iran's Persian Gulf field.
But trouble's brewing in Pakistan's turbulent Balochistan province through which the 485-mile Pakistani part of the 1,200-mile pipeline will pass on its way to Pakistan's energy-short industrial north.
Balochistan, in southwestern Pakistan, long neglected by Islamabad governments, has seen sustained clashes between security forces and tribal separatists over the last decade.
It's also reportedly a base for Iranian Balochis who, with U.S. backing, have been waging an insurgency seeking autonomy from Tehran.
The United States and Saudi Arabia, reprising their double act in funding and arming Muslim guerrillas in Afghanistan to fight the invading Soviets in 1979-89, are aiding the Sunni nationalist rebels of the Jundullah movement in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province fight the Shiite-dominated regime in Tehran.
Balochistan, which has huge natural gas reserves, is the kind of place where the Americans could stir up a lot of trouble for the Pakistanis, and the pipeline, if they so chose.
It may already have started. The Islamabad government of President Asif Ali Zardari dismissed Balochistan's chief minister in January after several days of protests by minority Shiites incensed by an attack by militant Sunni rivals in which 96 people were killed in the regional capital, Quetta.
That put Balochistan under the direct control of Islamabad, which might prove useful if the pipeline triggers unrest in the province.
"The prime minister has allowed the deployment of all organs of the state, including the army, for the safety of Quetta," said Jan Ali Changezi, a member of the Balochistan provincial legislature.
The sectarian bloodshed, which extends across all of Pakistan, has nonetheless undermined Zardari's government.
Washington, which with Riyadh has pressured Islamabad for years to abandon the pipeline project because it will greatly benefit Iran, has threatened the Pakistanis with economic sanctions, like those imposed against Iran in 2010, if they go ahead with the pipeline.
But this time around, the Pakistani government, whose relations with the United States are severely strained over unilateral U.S. drone attacks on suspected al-Qaida hideouts, seems determined to defy Washington because the pipeline's vital for tackling mounting energy shortages.
Under the deal between the National Iranian Oil Co. and Pakistan's Interstate Gas System, Tehran will provide 750 million cubic feet of gas per day for 25 years from its giant offshore South Pars field in the Persian Gulf.
Iran, for whom the pipeline is a symbol of its defiance of the United States and its ever-tightening sanctions, has offered Islamabad a $500 million loan to help finance the project.
Pakistan's segment of the pipeline will cost about $1.5 billion. A senior Pakistani official said, "The Iranians have said they'll provide more funding if there's a need."
Zardari's chief adviser on energy affairs, Asim Hussein, says the pipeline from Iran is "a feasible project for Pakistan. It's the quickest route, the cheapest route where we can fulfill our energy needs."
He said Pakistan needs 8 billion cubic feet of gas per day but produces only 4.2 billion bcf and has no facilities to import liquefied natural gas.
Iran has almost completed its 570-mile leg of the pipeline to the Pakistani border.
But trouble's brewing in Pakistan's turbulent Balochistan province through which the 485-mile Pakistani part of the 1,200-mile pipeline will pass on its way to Pakistan's energy-short industrial north.
Balochistan, in southwestern Pakistan, long neglected by Islamabad governments, has seen sustained clashes between security forces and tribal separatists over the last decade.
It's also reportedly a base for Iranian Balochis who, with U.S. backing, have been waging an insurgency seeking autonomy from Tehran.
The United States and Saudi Arabia, reprising their double act in funding and arming Muslim guerrillas in Afghanistan to fight the invading Soviets in 1979-89, are aiding the Sunni nationalist rebels of the Jundullah movement in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province fight the Shiite-dominated regime in Tehran.
Balochistan, which has huge natural gas reserves, is the kind of place where the Americans could stir up a lot of trouble for the Pakistanis, and the pipeline, if they so chose.
It may already have started. The Islamabad government of President Asif Ali Zardari dismissed Balochistan's chief minister in January after several days of protests by minority Shiites incensed by an attack by militant Sunni rivals in which 96 people were killed in the regional capital, Quetta.
That put Balochistan under the direct control of Islamabad, which might prove useful if the pipeline triggers unrest in the province.
"The prime minister has allowed the deployment of all organs of the state, including the army, for the safety of Quetta," said Jan Ali Changezi, a member of the Balochistan provincial legislature.
The sectarian bloodshed, which extends across all of Pakistan, has nonetheless undermined Zardari's government.
Washington, which with Riyadh has pressured Islamabad for years to abandon the pipeline project because it will greatly benefit Iran, has threatened the Pakistanis with economic sanctions, like those imposed against Iran in 2010, if they go ahead with the pipeline.
But this time around, the Pakistani government, whose relations with the United States are severely strained over unilateral U.S. drone attacks on suspected al-Qaida hideouts, seems determined to defy Washington because the pipeline's vital for tackling mounting energy shortages.
Under the deal between the National Iranian Oil Co. and Pakistan's Interstate Gas System, Tehran will provide 750 million cubic feet of gas per day for 25 years from its giant offshore South Pars field in the Persian Gulf.
Iran, for whom the pipeline is a symbol of its defiance of the United States and its ever-tightening sanctions, has offered Islamabad a $500 million loan to help finance the project.
Pakistan's segment of the pipeline will cost about $1.5 billion. A senior Pakistani official said, "The Iranians have said they'll provide more funding if there's a need."
Zardari's chief adviser on energy affairs, Asim Hussein, says the pipeline from Iran is "a feasible project for Pakistan. It's the quickest route, the cheapest route where we can fulfill our energy needs."
He said Pakistan needs 8 billion cubic feet of gas per day but produces only 4.2 billion bcf and has no facilities to import liquefied natural gas.
Iran has almost completed its 570-mile leg of the pipeline to the Pakistani border.
"One
Woman" is a song written for the global champion for women and girls,
to celebrate its mission and work to improve women's lives around the
world. This year, International Women's Day focuses on ending violence
against women — a gross human rights violation that affects up to 7 in
10 women and a top priority for UN Women. Listen to the song on: http://song.unwomen.org/.
Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Pakistan's nuclear trafficker Dr AQ Khan claims US government is killing South American presidents with new cancer 'technology'. No kidding; here is his tweet. Imagine, this twit is the top Pakistani 'scientist'. He once endorsed a water-powered car, now this new Sci Fi movie script.
Islamic Sharia at its best. Sudan man's foot, hand 'amputated' by court order. Yet, CAIR in America not only wanted Sharia in Canada, but still defends It in the USA when legislators call for a ban on it. .Sudan man's foot, hand 'amputated' by court order.
Government doctors in Sudan amputated a man's hand and foot to carry out
a sentence for robbery, rights groups said on Wednesday, describing the
extremely rare punishment as a form of torture.
The amputation of Adam Al Muthna's right hand and left foot took place by court order at the interior ministry's Al Rebat hospital in Khartoum on February 14, the rights groups said, citing "reliable sources."
Muthna, 30, was convicted of armed robbery related to an attack on a truck carrying passengers, said a statement issued by New York-based Human Rights Watch, also on behalf of the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies, London-based REDRESS and US-based Physicians for Human Rights.
"Cross amputation is a form of state-sponsored torture," said Vincent Iacopino, senior medical adviser at Physicians for Human Rights.
Sentences of amputation have previously been handed down under Islamic sharia law, whose introduction in 1983 sparked a devastating 22-year civil war.
But since 2001 there have been no known cases of such sentences being carried out, the rights groups said.
The Sudanese authorities "routinely" order flogging penalties and last year issued two sentences of death by stoning for adultery, although the capital punishment was later overturned, they added.
"Authorities should immediately stop imposing such cruel and inhuman punishments, and bring laws in line with Sudan's human rights obligations," said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
http://www.emirates247.com/news/region/sudan-man-s-foot-hand-amputated-by-court-order-2013-02-28-1.496915
The amputation of Adam Al Muthna's right hand and left foot took place by court order at the interior ministry's Al Rebat hospital in Khartoum on February 14, the rights groups said, citing "reliable sources."
Muthna, 30, was convicted of armed robbery related to an attack on a truck carrying passengers, said a statement issued by New York-based Human Rights Watch, also on behalf of the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies, London-based REDRESS and US-based Physicians for Human Rights.
"Cross amputation is a form of state-sponsored torture," said Vincent Iacopino, senior medical adviser at Physicians for Human Rights.
Sentences of amputation have previously been handed down under Islamic sharia law, whose introduction in 1983 sparked a devastating 22-year civil war.
But since 2001 there have been no known cases of such sentences being carried out, the rights groups said.
The Sudanese authorities "routinely" order flogging penalties and last year issued two sentences of death by stoning for adultery, although the capital punishment was later overturned, they added.
"Authorities should immediately stop imposing such cruel and inhuman punishments, and bring laws in line with Sudan's human rights obligations," said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
http://www.emirates247.com/news/region/sudan-man-s-foot-hand-amputated-by-court-order-2013-02-28-1.496915
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