On March 27, 2014 the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on free speech driven by the United States. The resolution extended by three years the job of the UN "expert" investigator on free expression. and contained a job description. Entitled "Freedom of Opinion and Expression: mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression," the final product of the U.S.-led effort has a number of disturbing elements.
The final version of the adopted resolution incorporates limits to free speech by slyly referring to Council resolution 7/36 of March 28, 2008. But Resolution 7/36 undermined free expression by requiring the rapporteur to "report on instances" of "the abuse of the right of freedom of expression [that] constitutes an act of racial or religious discrimination." The U.S. originally introduced the draft of the free speech resolution on March 4, 2014 without the reference to resolution 7/36. This indicates that the Obama administration put the free speech curbs back in after they determined the resolution would not be adopted by consensus unless amended.
Another worrying element of the resolution, as adopted, is a reference to "resolution 5/2 on the Code of Conduct for Special Procedures Mandate Holders of the Council." That resolution was adopted by the Council back in June 2007. The "Code of Conduct," imposed by the Council on all human rights investigators, emphasizes the importance of "the elimination of...politicization," and "cooperation," and demands that "the work of the Council shall be guided by the principles of non-selectivity..." All of these phrases are routinely invoked by the world's worst human rights abusers to avoid scrutiny of their human rights records. The U.S. agreed to add the mention of the Code of Conduct only after the Russians - supported by Belarus, China, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Namibia, South Africa and Venezuela - threatened to adopt an amendment which would have imposed it.