7th Session of Budapest International Model United Nations
Redefining freedom of speech in the context of hate
speech
Human Rights Council (HRC)
"All victims of human rights abuses should be able to look to the Human Rights
Council as a forum and a springboard for action.”
- Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, 12 March 2007, Opening of the 4th Human Rights Council Session
Introduction
The Human Rights Council is responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human
rights around the globe as well as addressing situations of human rights violations and make
recommendations on them. It has the ability to discuss all thematic human rights issues and situations
that require its attention throughout the year. It convenes at the United Nations Office at Geneva.
The Council is made up of 47 United Nations Member States which are elected by the United Nations
General Assembly. The Human Rights Council replaced the former United Nations Commission on
Human Rights in 2006.
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights1, adopted in 1948, provides, in Article 19,
that:
“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 and regardless of frontiers.”
The right to free speech is one of the most precious rights an individual has as a citizen of any
democratic society. This right provides people with the opportunity to speak their mind and give their
opinions in different matters. This issue has always brought concerns to societies in different times and
nowadays the right of free speech, whether it is criticism or not, is being questioned more and more.
Democracy is based profoundly on the right of people to express their views. Freedom of speech is a
basic human right in most societies, as it is essential in decision making from parliamentary to
community level. When this basic human right is threatened, people can become very emotional and
will often do anything to protect it.
General awareness and international laws
Legal systems sometimes recognize certain limits to freedom of speech, particularly when freedom of
speech conflicts with other rights and freedoms, such as in the cases of libel, slander, pornography,
obscenity, fighting words, and unauthorized use of intellectual property. Justification of limitations to
freedom of speech often reference the "harm principle" or the "offense principle". Limitations to
freedom of speech may occur through legal sanction or social objection, or both. Certain public
institutions may also enact policies restricting the freedom of speech, for example speech codes at state
schools and mandatory secrecy about certain military operations.
1
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf
7th Session of Budapest International Model United Nations
Regulations on hate-fuelled acts can be divided into two types: those which are designed to maintain
public order and those which are designed to protect human dignity. Those designed to protect public
order seem to be somewhat ineffective because they are rarely enforced. For example, in Northern
Ireland, as of 1992 only one person was prosecuted for violating such regulations in twenty one years.
Those meant to protect human dignity, however, like those in Canada, Denmark, France, Germany and
the Netherlands seem to be frequently enforced.
The right to freedom of expression extends to unpopular ideas and statements which “shock, offend or
disturb.” Nevertheless, a number of human rights treaties, including the ICCPR2 (International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), don’t only permit states to prohibit hate speech but actually
encourage them to do so.
When dealing with cases concerning incitement to hatred and freedom of expression, for example, the
European Court of Human Rights uses two approaches which are provided for by the European
Convention on Human Rights3:
- the approach of exclusion from the protection of the Convention, provided for by Article 17
(prohibition of abuse of rights), where the comments in question amount to hate speech and negate the
fundamental values of the Convention;
- the approach of setting restrictions on protection, provided for by Article 10, paragraph 2, of the
Convention (this approach is adopted where the speech in question, although it is hate speech, is not
apt to destroy the fundamental values of the Convention).
International standards on the issue of hate speech are determined by a balance of Articles 19 and 20
of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The former guarantees the right to freedom
of expression; this right shall include “(...) freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas
of all kinds, regardless of frontiers (...)”. Article 19 further outlines possible restrictions to this right,
including "for respect of the rights or reputations of others".
Article 20 states:
2
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CCPR.aspx
3
http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf
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Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law.
Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination,
hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.
How serious is this issue?
Debates about hate speech
The Charlie Hebdo attacks in January 2015 escalated the already existing debate about whether
freedom of speech should be limited due to offensive language and/or depictions. Those wanting a
regulation on hate speech argue that the idea of freedom of speech was created to establish meaningful
dialogue and not to offend others. On the side wishing to protect hate speech as free speech the usual
argument is that defining what counts as hate speech is quite hard due to the infinite number of ways
one can express themselves. Also, it is a huge dilemma who exactly should define what counts as hate
speech and what doesn’t. This brings us to the other main debate around hate speech.
If we have decided that hate speech should be regulated, one huge question still remains: what counts
as hate speech? If we use too vague a description it will be easy to mistake a slightly offending opinion
formulated in a respectful manner for hate speech. If the definition is too strict, it becomes much easier
to find holes in it and get away with hate speech. Also the line from which something counts as
offensive is different for every person, what makes one laugh may send the other into a burst of rage.
How widespread is it?
Due to definitions and views of hate speech being so varied, there are no UN statistics on the matter.
Unfortunately the only useful international statistic we could find is made by the European Union.
7th Session of Budapest International Model United Nations
Although it focuses at a relatively small and homogenous region, the brochure above shows how
widespread hate speech really is.
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What has been done so far?
The Rabat Plan of Action
Accepted in 2012 by experts of the Human Rights Council the Rabat Plan of Action addresses the
issue in great detail and formulates recommendations on the effective tackling of hate speech not only
for governments, but also the United Nations and “other stakeholders”, by which they mean NGOs and
other civil society groups. The action plan aims to provide universal tools and know-how against hate
speech, therefore it is a result of numerous workshops held in 2011 and 2012 on every continent with
the participation of experts from that continent/region.
UNESCO
In 2015 UNESCO released a relatively long (73 pages) publication with the title of “Countering online
hate speech”. It discusses the topic in great detail starting from the debates surrounding hate speech
and freedom of speech through possible policies all the way to combating hate speech through
education.
Sources and useful links:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech#Hate_speech_laws
http://sosracismo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Hate-Crime-and-Hate-Speech-in-Europe.Comprehensive-Analysis-of-International-Law-Principles-EU-wide-Study-and-NationalAssessments.pdf
http://digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1265&context=tjcil
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/singleview/news/unesco_launches_countering_online_hate_speech_publication/
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/TheRabatPlanofAction.aspx
Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us at
[email protected] and also please send a position paper of about
300-500 words to the same address by March 17th.