On December 21, the WUPJ and the IHEU appealed to the UNHCHR, Louise Arbour on the possible conflict between the 1948 Universal Declaration for Human Rights and the 1990 Cairo Declaration for Human Rights in Islam -- with shari’a law as “the only source of reference” (articles 24 and 25). No answer was received as of today. This text was posted by Dhimmi Watch the day it was sent and the question was asked then: “Will an Islamic Charter soon prevail over Universal Human Rights?”
Report by David G. Littman, in his capacity as representative of the World Union of Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) to the United Nations Office in Geneva:
This letter from two NGOs representing over 6 million members -- the World Union for Progressive Judaism and the International Humanist and Ethical Union -- was faxed to the Editor of the International Tribune in Paris on December 24, 2007, just before Christmas. Numerous letters were published in the IHT during the subsequent two weeks and more, some longer than ours, and several replying to more recent articles. The fact that such a pertinent ‘letter to the editor’ was, as usual, not published by the IHT -- owned exclusively by The New York Times -- speaks volumes. As we consider its content pertinent for a wide public, we have sent it to Dhimmi Watch for posting, without any modification whatsoever.The Editor
Letters to the Editor
International Herald Tribune
24 December 2007Sir,Universal Human Rights and Human Rights in IslamIn your editorial “The Saudi pardon” (Dec. 22-23), “Saudi Arabia’s archaic judicial system of Shariah-based rulings” is compared to “global standards enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Paradoxically, Saudi Arabia is one of 47 member states of the newly reformed UN Human Rights Council.On December 21, a joint NGO letter was sent to the High Commissioner for Human Rights Louis Arbour drawing her attention to the Human Rights Day message of the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, in which he declared that the OIC was “considering the establishment of [an] independent permanent body to promote Human Rights in the [Islamic] Member States in accordance with the provisions of the OIC Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam and to elaborate an OIC Charter on Human Rights.”Speaking on behalf of the OIC at the Human Rights Day celebrations at the Palais des Nations, Pakistan’s Ambassador Masood Khan claimed that the Cairo Declaration was “not an alternative competing worldview on human rights”, ignoring the fact that articles 24 And 25 of that declaration refer to Shariah law as its “only source of reference”. Yet, under Shariah law, there is no equality between men and women and between Muslims and non-Muslims.This Shariah-based 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam is in total contradiction with the global standards enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The assurances by Yusuf Alkadhi (“Islam and its ‘moderates,’” Dec. 24) that Islam -- with its Shariah-based rulings -- “represents a better chance of affording true social justice”, particularly in the vicious Saudi gang-rape case of the ‘Qatif girl’, is a travesty of truth.Sincerely,David G. Littman
NGO Representative to UN-Geneva
Association for World Education
World Union for Progressive JudaismRoy W. Brown
NGO, Main Representative to the UN-Geneva
International Humanist and Ethical Union
Posted by on January 9, 2008 2:33 PM - Jihad Watch
