page_title: Kacem El Ghazzali
section_title: Human rights at the UN HRC
hierarchical_section_title: Kacem El Ghazzali / Biography / Human rights at the UN HRC
caption_attribution_description: English: Kacem El Ghazzali looking out over Zürich, 2014
context_page_description: Kacem El Ghazzali, is a secularist writer and activist and is one of the few Moroccans to publicly announce to be an atheist. Kacem speaks English, as well as German, French, Arabic and Berber. Mostly known for his publicly voiced atheism, his writings stress the importance of freedom of thought which, in his view is lacking in countries dominated by Islam. His articles have been published in/by the Richard Dawkins Foundation, Huffington Post, Le Monde, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Basler Zeitung and others.
  In 2017 El Ghazzali was granted Swiss citizenship, and was chosen as one of the 14 most influential Swiss intellectuals of the year by the Basler Zeitung. El Ghazzali was also named Swiss of the Year 2018 by the Sunday newspaper SonntagsZeitung among 30 other personalities.
context_section_description: Since 2012 El Ghazzali has been serving as International Humanist and Ethical Union Representative at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Geneva, where he criticized Saudi Arabia for persecuting freethinkers and liberals like the poet Hamza Kashgari and the blogger Raif Badawi. El Ghazali also criticised his home state of Morocco for unconstitutionally silencing the voices of atheists.
  During the 25th Session of the Human Rights Council, El Ghazzali criticised the fact that several states in which convicted ‘blasphemers’ are currently in jail are also current members of the Human Rights Council.
  At the beginning of the 37th session of the Human Rights Council, Iran's Justice Minister Alireza Avayi criticised “self-identified champions of human rights who, through finger pointing, unjustly and widely blame others for violations of human rights” at the United Nations. In his intervention, El Ghazzali criticised the fact that Iran prevents girls and women from attending certain sporting events and forces them to wear the veil. Addressing the council, El Ghazzali also said that "Iran’s human rights record brings shame on us all."
caption: El Ghazzali looking over Zürich, 2014
exif: {}