Russia Continues To Conflate Freedom Of Religion Or Belief And Extremism
Author(s):
On March 4, 2020, Ms. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, presented her new report on human rights impact of policies and practices aimed at preventing and countering violent extremism. In the report, the Special Rapporteur stressed that any laws based on the broad concept of extremism cannot be seen as human rights compliant. She emphasized that: “The category of ‘extremist’ crimes is particularly vague and problematic. Absent the qualifier of ‘violent extremism conducive to terrorism’, the term remains broad and overly vague and may encroach on human rights in profound and far-reaching ways… The term ‘extremism’ has no purchase in binding international legal standards and, when operative as a criminal legal category, is irreconcilable with the principle of legal certainty; it is therefore per se incompatible with the exercise of certain fundamental human rights” …