[governance] Watch out for that hate speech

[Meryem Marzouki]

Le 12 déc. 08 à 09:53, Milton L Mueller a écrit :

> Interesting to me that the religious right in America is  
> characterizing criticism of their religion as “hateful” and as  
> “bigotry.” It provides an example of why many free speech advocates  
> oppose so-called hate speech regulation, as it could easily be  
> invoked to suppress all kinds of legitimate expression.
>
Or provides an example of why 'hate speech', without any precision  
and especially without specific reference to discrimination, is  
inadequate not only as a legal qualification but also as  
characterization in the political/social discourse. In countries like  
France where racist speech (and other kind of speech among those  
generally described as 'hate speech') is an offense punished by law,  
saying that "There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or  
hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and  
superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds." not only is not  
an offense, but is quite common (and well appreciated in some not so  
restricted circles:))

Actually, such a sentence should refer to 'blasphemy' or 'defamation  
of religions' (which are not considered as offenses in many  
countries, needless to say that "defamation of religion", as a legal  
concept, is pure nonsense) rather than to 'hate speech'. There is no  
hate directed to anyone expressed in the quoted sentence, so, in  
which way could this be interpreted as 'hate speech'?

Right back from Hyderabad, I participed on 8-9 December to a  
conference organized in Paris by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency and  
the French presidency. It was on "Freedom of expression, a  
cornerstone of democracy - listening and communicating in a diverse  
Europe" (http://fra.europa.eu/fra/index.php? 
fuseaction=content.dsp_cat_content&catid=3e6c61340870c&contentid=492d3cd 
b312db).
The former UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism,  
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou  
Diène, was present. According to him, it seems that, at the  
international level, we're going to get rid of 'defamation of  
religions' concept (and offense in some countries).
And, indeed, in his report of September 2008 on the "manifestations  
of defamation of religions and in particular on the serious  
implications of Islamophobia on the enjoyment of all rights" (http:// 
daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G08/153/97/PDF/G0815397.pdf), he  
recommends that "the Human Rights Council encourage a shift away from  
the sociological concept of the defamation of religions towards the  
legal norm of non-incitement to national, racial or religious hatred,  
on the basis of the legal provisions laid down in international human  
rights instruments, in particular articles 18 to 20 of the  
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 4 of  
the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of  
Racial Prejudice."
The recommendations of the report from the UN High Commissionner for  
Human Rights on "combating defamation of religions", presented at the  
9th session of the Human Rights Council are drawn along the same line  
(http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/9session/A.HRC. 
9.7.doc). It's worth noting that this latter report is on the  
implementation of human rights council resolution 7/19 entitled  
“combating defamation of religions".

Meryem
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