March 15, on the International Day of Combating Islamophobia, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) adopted a draft resolution on steps that must be taken to combat Islamophobia.
As a result of the voting of the General Assembly, 115 votes “For”, 0 votes are “against” and 44 votes “not determined”.
It is noteworthy that France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Ukraine and India are among 44 countries that abstained.
One of the authors of the resolution, Turkey during the discussions before the vote, stated that during negotiations on the draft resolution on the fight against Islamophobia the necessary flexibility was shown.
The Turkish delegation called to support the resolution as an inclusive text in the General Assembly and voted against the proposed amendments to the resolution.
The adopted resolution condemns publications and messages in all types of media, promoting discrimination, violence and speech in favor of religious hatred, as well as religious intolerance, uniformity and hostility towards Muslims, including sacred books and places.
The resolution turned to the UN Secretary General Antoniu Guterrish with a request to appoint a “special representative of the UN” to combat Islamophobia and called on the member states to take all necessary measures, including legal and political, to combat religious intolerance and violence against Muslims.
The resolution also encourages intercultural and inter-civilizational dialogue and religious diversity and asked the UN Secretary General to prepare a report on the implementation of this resolution and present it at the 79th session of the UN General Assembly.
In 2022, in accordance with the resolution represented by Turkey and Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (IIT), the date of March 15 at the UN General Assembly was announced by “International Day of Combating Islamophobia.” The resolution called for the strengthening of international efforts to promote the culture of tolerance and the world, as well as a global dialogue based on respect for human rights, various religions and beliefs.
Over the past two years, March 15 has been celebrated as an International Day of Combating Islamophobia.