ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi has called the newly-founded ‘UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech’ for action to combat Islamophobia and hate speech.

Maleeha Lodhi said this at a special meeting in New York. She said an inevitable consequence of Islamophobia was to fan the flames of bigotry, intolerance, anti-Muslim hatred and xenophobia.

She said Prime Minister Imran Khan had recently called for urgent action to counter Islamophobia, which was currently the most prevalent expression of racism and hatred against ‘the other’.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the occasion said the UN Strategy and Plan of Action provided a system-wide programme with the overriding objective of identifying, preventing and confronting hate speech.

“Hate speech may have gained a foothold, but it is now on notice. We will never stop confronting it.

“This Strategy and Plan of Action are brand new – but they are rooted in our oldest commitment. Respect for human rights, without discrimination based on race, sex, language or religion, is a thread running through the United Nations Charter,” he said.