UN adopts Pakistan’s resolution to combat Islamophobia | Maqvi News

Initiated by Pakistan and backed by OIC, resolution receives overwhelming support, with 115 votes in favor and 44 abstentions n India along with most of European states abstained on resolution n Islamabad welcomes UNGA’s call for appointment of United Nations Special Envoy tasked specifically with combating Islamophobia.

ISLAMABAD  –  Pakistan Saturday wel­comed the adoption of the resolution titled “Measures to Combat Is­lamophobia,” by the UN General Assembly with an overwhelming majority.

The move comes as the world marks the In­ternational Day against Islamophobia on Friday.

According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Af­fairs, the resolution was presented by Paki­stan on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as a follow-up of the General Assembly Resolution 76/254, which desig­nated 15th of March as the International Day to combat Islamophobia.

The General Assem­bly condemned the incitement to discrimi­nation, hostility or vio­lence against Muslims as manifested in the in­creasing number of inci­dents of desecration of the Holy Quran, attacks on mosques, sites and shrines and other acts of religious intolerance, negative stereotyping, hatred and violence against Muslims. The General Assem­bly has called upon the Mem­ber States to take legislative and policy measures to combat reli­gious intolerance, negative ste­reotyping, hatred, incitement to violence and violence against Muslims. Pakistan welcomed the General Assembly’s call for the appointment of a “United Nations Special Envoy to com­bat Islamophobia”. This histor­ic appointment will be the first of its kind, exclusively dedicat­ed to combating the scourge of Islamophobia. The adoption of the resolution comes at a crit­ical time, amidst rising Islam­ophobia, as manifested by an increasing number of incidents of discrimination, violence, and incitement against Muslims around the world. Earlier, the United Nations General Assem­bly adopted a Pakistani resolu­tion, by a big majority, that called for concerted action to fight on­going violence against Muslims and requested the UN Secre­tary-General to appoint a special envoy to combat Islamophobia. The resolution, titled: ‘Measures to Combat Islamophobia’, was passed by a vote of 113 in favour to none against, with 44 absten­tions. India, along with most of European states, abstained on the resolution. Prior to adopting the resolution, the 193-member Assembly rejected two amend­ments proposed by a group of European nations. Earlier while introducing the resolution in the UN General Assembly on be­half of the OIC, permanent rep­resentative of Pakistan to the UN Ambassador Munir Akram said the incidents of Islamophobia of discrimination, and violence against Muslims have risen ex­ponentially both at the societal and state levels.