Support for and interest in IHEU's work for freedom of expression at the UN has come from many commentators, following the appalling events at the Human Rights Council on 16 June 2008. Among the news and web reports was a particularly well-argued piece by Robert Spencer in FrontPage magazine, "Free Speech Dies at the UN".

In a session at the 2008 General Assembly on Human Rights, triggered by the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Roy Brown outlined just how ineffective the UNHRC was, indeed that it was at best passively shielding Human Rights abuses from examination and at worst an obstructing action against them. Roy gave examples to show that by some measures the Council had deteriorated to the level of its discredited predecessor, the UN Commission on Human Rights. Keith Porteous Wood was invited to suggest how IHEU member organisations and supporters should react.

The UN Human Rights Council is not allowed to judge religions, according to president Doru Romulus Costea of Romania. Criticism of Sharia law or fatwas is now forbidden.

This ruling follows attempts by the Egyptian and Pakistani delegates at the Council to silence criticism of human rights abuse in the Islamic world.

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and World Editors Forum has condemned the UN Human Rights Council’s repeated efforts to undermine freedom of expression in the name of protecting religious sensibilities. “WAN reminds the UN that the Council’s proper role is to defend freedom of expression and not to support the censorship of opinion at the request of autocracies,” the WAN Board said in a resolution issued during the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum, the global meetings of the world’s press being held in Göteborg, Sweden.

In India the print media is mostly owned by large business houses with a variety of trade and commercial interests, and they are keen to propitiate Hindu religious interests. As a reaction to the propagation of the majority viewpoint, and many times out of their own vested interests, smaller non-Hindu sections of the media promote their own religious lobbies.

At the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Tuesday, 15 April, states belonging to the Organisation of Islamic Conference demanded that Holland prosecute one of its MPs for "defamation of religion". The very next day, 16 April 2008, Keith Porteous Wood raised the alarm about the threats these nations are posing to freedom of expression in a speech in Brussels attended by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

For the past eleven years the organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), representing the 57 Islamic States, has been tightening its grip on the throat of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yesterday, 28 March 2008, they finally killed it.

The Chinese delegation to the Human Rights Council succeeded in blocking all criticism of their actions in Tibet by invoking a series of 12 points of order during statements by the United States, Switzerland and Slovenia (for the European Union) while several states including Zimbabwe, Cuba and Pakistan raised points of order in favour of China. As the general debate degenerated, point of order followed point of order until the Chairman, Ambassador Costea of Romania called for a 10 minute adjournment to allow tempers to cool.

In a shocking affront to freedom of expression, the Government of Punjab, India, has banned four rationalist books and threatened legal action against the authors and translators, Tarksheel Society of Punjab reports. The supposed grounds for the ban is that the books are "incorrect literature" about Hindu deities.