The message of General Comment No. 34 is not only a clear condemnation of the blasphemy laws of countries such as Pakistan, which despite having ratified the ICCPR in 2008, continues to impose the death sentence for blasphemy and “defiling” the name of Prophet Muhammad. The Comment equally repudiates the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which has upheld Austrian, British, and Turkish laws against blasphemy and religious insult by invoking a sui generis right to “respect for the religious feelings of believers.”
Austin Dacey
Austin Dacey is a contributing editor at Religion Dispatches and the author of The Future of Blasphemy: Speaking of the Sacred in an Age of Human Rights. He is currently a senior consultant to the Youth Free Expression Program at the National Coalition Against Censorship.
