On Tuesday, the United Nations' Human Rights Office voiced its fears over what the UN claims is the rapid spread of racist hate speech across borders via the Internet and social media networks.

The UN's Flavia Pansieri, its recently appointed deputy high commissioner for the Human Rights Office, stated that, as she sees it, the Internet racist speech is "compounded by the lack of a universally acceptable definition of what constitutes hate speech."

But according to US Constitutional law scholar, Jay Sekulow, an attorney and founder of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), "Russia is pushing for a move that would turn over control of the Internet from a US-based entity to the United Nations. This troubling power play would give unprecedented authority to the UN. Such a move would mean only one thing: censorship."

Ms. Pansieri spoke at the start of the latest session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by its State parties.

According to the CERD mandate, "All States parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the Committee on how the rights are being implemented. States must report initially one year after acceding to the Convention and then every two years. The Committee examines each report and addresses its concerns and recommendations to the State party in the form of 'concluding observations.'"

Commissioner Pansieri stated that incorporating human rights education in schools would go along way in the prevention and eradication of all forms of discrimination and intolerance.

She noted during her presentation:

Where does the right of expression which we all want to respect stop and the need to sanction and prevent hate speech begin? What is the point in time when one right has to recognize that it cannot be exercised if it implies the violation of another one?

[For example,] persons with albinism have been dismembered alive. There have been abductions in 15 African states and the special Rapporteur has strongly urged governments to really engage in raising awareness and understanding that the different color of skin of persons with albinism doesn't make them less human beings and any less deserving or having all the rights respected and protected.

However, Sekulow claims that "the UN's goal is to put the Internet under global government control, consider this clause taken from the Russian proposal - clearly putting UN member states and the United Nations at the helm of controlling and regulating the Internet: Member States should endeavor to establish policies aimed at meeting public requirements with respect to Internet access and use, and at assisting, including through international cooperation, administrations and operating agencies in supporting the operation and development of the Internet."


SOURCE http://www.examiner.com/article/hate-crime-united-nations-targets-the-internet-and-social-media-networks

The law firm representing dozens of conservative groups targeted by the Internal Revenue Service announced Wednesday that its clients are rejecting the IRS’s new expedited review process for 501(c)(4) applications.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) — which has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of 41 conservative groups targeted by the IRS — said its clients are rejecting the new process because it applies a standard that would require that groups spend at least 60 percent of their time and resources on social welfare promotion and no more than 40 percent on political activities.

Seven of ACLJ’s clients rejected the process even though they would have qualified for expedited review and already have had applications pending for more than 645 days. One group has an application pending for 1,297 days.

According to ACLJ chief counsel Jay Sekulow, the 60/40 standard the IRS would apply to expedite the applications is “deeply flawed” and not rooted in statutes or regulations.

In a letter to the Department of Justice in response to a notice about the “expedited process for recognition of exemption” Wednesday, Sekulow called the 60/40 standard “merely safe harbor provisions the IRS has crafted in response to the problems that have been created by its own admitted misconduct.”

“We have been instructed by our clients to reject the IRS’s offer for expedited review on the basis you have proposed,” Sekulow wrote. “Respectfully, because these seven clients have been awaiting determination for years and have complied with all legitimate requests for additional information, we request that the IRS complete its review of their application and make a final determination immediately.”

The IRS announced last month that it would offer an optional, faster option for the 501(c)(4) process with the 60/40 standard, as a way to reduce the application backlog.

“The IRS is committed to improving our tax-exempt review process,” IRS Principal Deputy Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. “This new streamlined option gives certain groups that have waited far too long a quick and clear path to get their status resolved.”

The seven organizations that rejected the expedited process are the Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots in Arizona, the Allen Area Patriots in Texas, the Laurens County Tea Party in South Carolina, the North East Tarrant Tea Party in Texas, the Myrtle Beach Tea Party in South Carolina, the Albuquerque Tea Party in New Mexico, and the Acadiana Patriots in Louisiana.

Of the 41 groups the ACLJ represents, 19 received tax-exempt status after long delays, 17 are still pending, and 5 withdrew their applications out of frustration. According to an ACLJ spokesman the IRS’ criteria for expedited review of 501 (c)(4) applications only applied to the seven groups that rejected the offer.


SOURCE http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/17/conservative-groups-targeted-by-the-irs-reject-the-agencys-new-expedited-review-process/