Danish Cartoons and Freedom of Speech. Principles of Harm and Offence (PDF)

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, , course: HR-II, language: English, abstract: The problem emerges as a result of cartoons of Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H.) in 2005 by the Danish Newspaper "Jayllands Posten". It created a situation that exposed the differences of different worlds based on religions and beliefs. Freedom of expression and opinion in international instruments based on acknowledged human rights became controversial in relation to rights and duties. In regards to Danish cartoons, principles of harm and offence as explained by Mill and Feinberg and their legal validity are applied to judge the situation. Laws are based on norms and values philosophically exerted out of customs and practices. I would present that human behaviors are meant to be treated based on realities but not on cynic philosophical argumentations or debates.

My purpose of research on the cartoons violence issue is to explain the moral grounds of universal human rights standards required to solve the dilemma peacefully. I have presented past, present and future of the controversy. All the conflict is misrepresented if they are presented out of context in relation to discussing the history of the conflict. For instance all the conflicts which are a threat to world peace have long history. And almost all the conflicts are based on religious grounds, for instance Palestine, Kashmir and the recent phenomenon terrorism is not out of this circle at all. My aim was to understand and give a brief but broad view of the cartoon controversy by describing its past as well. Describing religious conflict as the historical background does not mean we are still following the past but my aim was to show the current situation of our world which has become a global village in which personal bias of a single person can escalate a world conflict if few people decide to manipulate the situation. I certainly disprove any "clash of civilizations" but wanted to explain how we can build bridges among different cultural and social differences.