The UN Human Rights Council will hold an extraordinary meeting on “Koran burnings in Europe”, AFP reports. The news comes barely a week after the burning outside a mosque in Stockholm. TV4 Nyhetern’s foreign affairs commentator Elisabet Frerot says that it would be offensive if a condemnation were directed at Sweden.
– They cannot issue any kind of sanctions, but a condemnation would of course be incredibly embarrassing for Sweden, which is usually the country that accuses others of violating human rights, she says.
Council spokesman Pascal Sim said on Tuesday that it would soon discuss the “alarming increase in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred, as manifested by the desecration of the Holy Koran in some European and other countries”, reports AFP.
According to Sim, the meeting will take place at the request of Pakistan, on behalf of a number of member countries that are part of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
Criticized advice
However, the UN Human Rights Council has been criticized because members such as China and Libya are countries that have themselves been criticized for violating human rights.
– There has been quite a lot of criticism partly because not all countries are involved, and partly because many countries themselves violate human rights such as Libya and China, says Elisabet Frerot.
Although the council does not have the power to issue sanctions, it can condemn countries it believes have committed human rights violations.
Everything that happens affects Sweden’s NATO application
Elisabet Frerot believes that everything that has happened so far affects Sweden’s NATO application, as well as the recent Koran burning on Södermalm in Stockholm.
The fact that the events are now being taken up in the UN does not make the situation any easier.
– This will be another onion on the salmon of course. It is still the UN Human Rights Council that weighs heavily, even if it is a contested association, she says.
– This affects, but it is perhaps not the individual factor that affects the most, but it is the combined massive outrage in the Muslim world, and among others, who thought this was extremely inappropriate.