Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has emphasized the need for reviewing discriminatory state laws, policies and practices and promoting inter-faith harmony, tolerance and peaceful co-existence.

Inaugurating the eight meeting of the Istanbul Process, being hosted on a virtual platform by Pakistan from Geneva, the Foreign Minister presented a three-pronged preventive and action-oriented strategy as a way forward to prevent and counter menaces.

The theme of the meeting is "10th anniversary of UN Human Rights Council resolution 16/18: Looking Back and Moving Forward."

In his key-note address, the Foreign Minister called for building legal deterrence against hate speech; and concluding an international instrument that prohibits dissemination of ideas and expressions which incite acts of religious intolerance and hatred leading to violence.