The Arab League (AL) Council at the Foreign Ministers level expressed, on September 6 in Cairo, its support for Morocco’s bid to chair the 18th session of the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for 2024.
Chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation, and Moroccan Expatriates, Nasser Bourita, the Council approved the recommendations issued by the 52nd session of the Arab Permanent Human Rights Committee (AHR), particularly the initiatives undertaken by the Kingdom to promote human rights through the hosting of the official launch activities of the Arab Plan to Foster the Culture of Human Rights in Rabat in December, the drafting of a concept paper on the impact of climate change on human rights in the Arab region, and the inclusion on the Commission’s agenda of the “Call to commit to implementing the Marrakech Declaration on national implementation, reporting and monitoring mechanisms in the field of human rights.”
The Council also adopted the joint resolution presented by Morocco, Libya, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), aimed at “prohibiting all advocacy of religious hatred, stressing the need to prevent, at the international level, contempt for religions, and calling on the international community to ensure balance in the application of the relevant international conventions.”
This joint initiative is based on the recent resolution submitted by the Kingdom to the United Nations General Assembly on “the Promotion of Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue and Tolerance against Hate Speech,” and the United Nations (UN) references, notably the Rabat Action Plan on the prohibition of any advocacy of national, racial, or religious hatred that incites to discrimination, hostility, or violence, adopted in 2012, under the aegis of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), as well as the Fez Action Plan for religious leaders and actors to prevent incitement to violence that could lead to criminal acts, launched by the United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) in 2017.