Speech
In 2022, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting reported that there were 11.634 hate crime incidents that year. Unfortunately, hate speech is a topic that has grown disproportionally these days, so it is a priority to address it. Hate speech is a topic discussed by people throughout social media and beyond; its use has been utilized for the protection of people but for the downfall of others. First and foremost, to approach the topic of hate speech, we need to ask ourselves, what is hate speech?
Hate Speech
Any kind of communication in speech, writing, or behavior that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language regarding a person or a group based on who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, descent, gender or other identity factor.
While there is no official definition under international human rights law, the definition written above is used by the United Nations when discussing the topic. The concept of hate speech is under discussion, meaning that it is up to an individual State(country) to make its laws and decide its definition. It is only possible to have international laws with a concrete definition and a defined base for that definition, which is why instead of focusing on the hate speech itself, we have to focus on what was made concrete by the United Nations, incitement.
Incitement is a form of behavior that explicitly aims at triggering discrimination, hostility, and violence. For any form of speech that does not reach the threshold of incitement, international law does not require a State to prohibit it or be called hate speech. After a seminar in 2008 about freedom of speech and incitement, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, or OHCHR, established the Rabat Plan of Action on October 05, 2012. It aimed to “Conduct a comprehensive assessment of the implementation of legislation, jurisprudence, and policies regarding advocacy of national, racial, or religious hatred that contributes incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence, at the national and regional levels.” as said in the Annual Report of the OHCHR. In conclusion, the Rabat Plan of Action prohibited incitement and established six ways to discern incitement. By:
Context
Speaker
Intent
Content and form
Extent of the speech act
Likelihood, including imminence
With this being said, since incitement is something that can vary between situation and context, the majority of people can accuse people of hate speech when they are just expressing their opinions. This can lead to another important topic that most of the time is related to hate speech, free speech. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 19 talks about freedom of speech internationally.
Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.
These days, people tend to get wrong hate speech with opinions because there are a lot of sensitive topics talked about. Miscommunication can lead to people understanding forms of speech as incitement to discrimination or misconduct. Even if it is not miscommunication, some opinions can seem inciting or discriminative, when they are not, so people have to be careful before stating something. Overall, other plans were made to fix this issue. An example would be the United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, which aimed to address the roots of hate speech and create a response concerning the human rights article protection freedom of expression. This document had 4 principles and 13 commitments that would be established globally. To summarize, the plan of action’s commitments weren’t something out of the ordinary that changed a lot, they just restated what was clear that States should do. The commitments were:
Monitoring and analyzing hate speech
Addressing root causes, drivers, and actors of hate speech
Engaging and supporting victims of hate speech
Convening relevant actors
Engaging with new and traditional media
Using Technology
Using education as a tool for addressing and countering hate speech
Fostering a peaceful, inclusive, and just society to address the root causes and drivers of hate speech
Engaging in advocacy
Developing guidance for external communications
Leveraging partnership
Building the skills of UN staff
Supporting member states
Ultimately, hate speech and free speech are topics that will keep growing through the years so people must be informed about it. This topic is really broad and complex so it is almost impossible to some every little thing. Especially with the more famous it gets, but with all the information stated in this article it will give you an overview and almost everything you need to know when dealing with this topic in the world. Now that you know the synopsis of it, not spreading hate to people around you or spreading misinformation about the topic could be the next steps for a better understanding of people, and topics and a better global community.
Bibliography:
“Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” United Nations, United Nations, www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.
Ohchr and Freedom of Expression vs Incitement to Hatred: The Rabat ..., www.ohchr.org/en/freedom-of-expression. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.
One-Pager on “Incitement to Hatred,” www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Rabat_threshold_test.pdf. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.
“OHCHR.” Annual Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Rabat_draft_outcome_FR.pdf. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Rabat_draft_outcome.pdf
“United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech.” United Nations, Sept. 2020, www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/UN Strategy and PoA on Hate Speech_Guidance on Addressing in field.pdf.
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/UN%20Strategy%20and%20PoA%20on%20Hate%20Speech_Guidance%20on%20Addressing%20in%20field.pdf