The UN Strategy and Plan of Action
In response to the alarming trend of rising hate speech around the world, Secretary-General António Guterres launched the United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, on 18 June 2019.
Seeking to enhance the UN’s response to the global phenomenon of hate speech, this strategy is the outcome of close collaboration between 16 entities under the UN Working Group on Hate Speech and is coordinated by the United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide.
The Strategy makes a firm commitment to step up coordinated action to tackle hate speech, both at global and national levels.
“Addressing hate speech does not mean limiting or prohibiting freedom of speech. It means keeping hate speech from escalating into more something more dangerous, particularly incitement to discrimination, hostility and violence, which is prohibited under international law.”
— United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, June 2019
Vision and main objectives
The Strategy and Plan of Action acknowledges that hate speech has the potential to incite violence and undermine social unity. It recognizes that hate speech has been a precursor to atrocity crimes, including genocide, over the past 75 years.
This approach to coordinating efforts across the UN system to identify, prevent and confront hate speech is grounded in international human rights standards, including the right to freedom of opinion and expression, principles of equality and non-discrimination, as well as other fundamental rights.
The Strategy aims to give the United Nations the room and the resources to address hate speech, which poses a threat to UN principles, values and programmes. It guides the UN system on how to address hate speech and includes ways to support United Nations Resident Coordinators’ action in addressing and countering hate speech on the ground.
The Strategy and Plan of Action has two overriding objectives:
Enhance UN efforts to address the root causes and drivers of hate speech in a coordinated way, with a focus on education as a preventive tool to raise awareness and build unity.
Focus on the United Nations response to the impact of hate speech on societies, with an emphasis on engaging with relevant actors, strengthening advocacy, and developing guidance for counter-narratives.
Key principles and commitments
The Strategy and Plan of Action consists of 13 commitments to action by the United Nations system, based on four key principles:
The Strategy and its implementation must be in line with the right to freedom of opinion and expression, as the UN supports more positive speech, not less speech, as the key way to address hate speech.
Tackling hate speech is the responsibility of all. That means we must all take action: governments, societies, the private sector, starting with individuals.
The UN intends to support a new generation of digital citizens, empowered to recognize, reject and stand up to hate speech in the digital age.
As effective action must be supported by better knowledge, the Strategy calls for coordinated data collection and research, including on the root causes, drivers and conditions conducive that drive hate speech.
Discover all 13 commitments set forth in the UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech.
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