November 16, 2005

Amendments proposed by Yemen to the draft resolution on the Elimination of all forms of intolerance and of discrimination based on religion or belief

Click here to view this document in MS Word/PDF format

Yemen withdrew its amendments to a resolution on religious intolerance adopted on Friday by the UN General Assembly's Third Committee after the European Union agreed to incorporate many of them. One item added was the seemingly neutral "respect" to the sentence which insisted that "states....promot[e] tolerance, respect and freedom of religion and belief." Then Syria spoke. Syria was unhappy because "we must have greater respect among religions...one part of the resolution is in contradiction with the precepts of Islam; the sponsors should not have insisted on the right of individuals to change their religion because this resolution is about respect."