The statement was delivered by Leon Langdon, Senior Advocacy Officer at Humanists International, during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur. The organization thanked Irene Khan for her report “Freedom of expression in new frontiers”, and for her report on her visit to Germany in early 2026, where she met some of Humanists International’s Members. It also recorded the organization’s gratitude for six years of work in defense of the right in difficult times. Khan held the mandate from August 2020 and was the first woman to do so.
Humanists International said it shared the Special Rapporteur’s alarm at the instrumentalization and weaponization of freedom of expression, and at restrictions imposed in the name of national security and of ideas of the public good, a pattern it saw across many rights.
Where expression is criminalized, the statement argued, the line must be drawn with immense care. Restrictions on incitement protect people, not beliefs, and the threshold is set out in the Rabat Plan of Action. Criticism of religion, however offensive it may be deemed, is protected speech. Humanists International urged States to read and endorse the report in its entirety and in its nuance, rather than selectively.
It was disappointed, however, that the report said little about “blasphemy” and “apostasy” laws. Humanists, atheists, and the non-religious are prosecuted, imprisoned, face the death penalty, or face extrajudicial violence over social media posts in dozens of countries. That, the statement said, is also the weaponization of expression, enforced through the digital means the report describes. It asked the incoming mandate holder to devote attention to the issue.
Humanists International welcomed the report’s findings on gendered censorship, and added that the suppression by platforms of sexual and reproductive health information and of LGBTI+ issues is censorship, and is often advocated by the same networks that otherwise press for so-called free speech absolutism.
The statement ended with a question to the Special Rapporteur, asking what single step States should take to ensure that legitimate restrictions on incitement are never molded into de facto “blasphemy” laws.
Featured photo by Sayed Masoumi via Pexels
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