"Is the United Nations Endorsing Human Rights Violations?"

Rebecca J. Dobras, Note, Is the United Nations Endorsing Human Rights Violations? An Analysis of the United Nations' Combating Defamation of Religions Resolutions and Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws, 37 Ga. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 339 (2009)

Several law review articles have been published in the last few years about the United Nations' "defamation of religion" resolution, but this student note by Rebecca Dobras is the best at explaining how the resolutions are linked to Pakistan. The article makes clear that Pakistan is not only a prime mover behind the resolutions on the international scene, but that the country's frequently- and severely- used domestic blasphemy laws would benefit from an international norm consistent with the resolutions. According to the piece, the number of blasphemy prosecutions has skyrocketed in Pakistan in the past decade, and even attempts by Musharraf to mitigate their effect have failed because the prosecutions are so popular. This is a long, but carefully written article that is one of the best I've seen on the subject of the U.N. resolutions and their underlying cause.