Geneva - Three United Nations special rapporteurs on Friday condemned the "provocative nature" of afilm by a Dutch legislator which links Muslim acts of violence to passages from the Koran. The 16-minute film by Gert Wilders entitled Fitna was released Thursday on the internet.
The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diene; the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir; and the Special Rapporteur for the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Ambeyi Ligabo, said they condemned "the tone and content" of the film.
"While on the one hand, freedom of expression is a fundamental human right that must be respected, it does not extend to include incitement to racial or religious hatred which is itself clearly a violation of human rights," they said in a joint statement released in Geneva.
The three also said that ever since the controversial caricatures of the Muslim prophet Mohammed were published in September 2005 they had urged all parties to refrain from fuelling hatred.
