UN Draft Document Calls For Tempering Free Speech Over Religious Sensibilities

Today's Canadian Jewish News reports that a draft discussion paper circulating in advance of the April 2009 United Nations Durban II anti-racism conference contains controversial language on avoiding defamation of religion. The Preliminary Document of the African Regional Conference Preparatory to the Durban Review Conference, paragraph 13, "calls upon states to avoid inflexibly clinging to free speech in defiance of the sensitivities existing in a society and with absolute disregard for religious feelings."