The Abuse of the Term “Hate Speech”

Below is a video of the intervention read by Arthur Brooks, representing the International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA) at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Session 12: “Tolerance and non-discrimination II, including prevention and responses to hate crimes, aggressive nationalism and chauvinism”.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for editing this video:

The prepared text of Mr. Brooks’ intervention may be read here.

Update: In response to readers’ requests, the full text of Mr. Brooks’ intervention is now available below the jump:

Statement by the International Civil Liberties Alliance
OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting

Session 12: Tolerance and Non-Discrimination II

Warsaw, September 30, 2014

Mr moderator, ladies and gentlemen, thank you.

We in the International Civil Liberties Alliance agree that hatred can be dangerous and lead to serious crimes. As mentioned in the opening speech, today is the anniversary of the mass murder of many Jews at the Auschwitz death camp, undoubtedly a crime motivated by hatred propagated by Nazi Germany. However when terms such as hate crimes, and speech are poorly defined, there is a risk of malicious prosecutions and even cover-ups to shut down debate inconvenient for certain groups.

Lately, we have seen many examples of this — to cite just two, in Poland, the owner of a webpage, Damian Kowalski, was investigated by police over a supposed hate crime. His webpage, ndie.pl or “No to Islamisation of Europe” reported on cases of Islamic extremism in Western countries, often simply translating reports into Polish from mainstream Western media. The police justified their investigation, and confiscation of computer equipment, by saying the accused “incited to hatred of believers of Islam”, did not elaborate on where he had done this. Meanwhile in the UK city of Rotherham, a report found that 1400 underage girls were sexually abused and groomed for prostitution by gangs that were (more or less) unanimously acknowledged to be mainly Pakistani in origin. Such abuses were found to be covered up by police and child protect services, partly as the ethnic origin of gangs made this a sensitive issue. In other words — the need not to be even suspected of inciting hatred took precedence over physical protection of young vulnerable girls.

Such abuses can take place when terms such as hate speech are loosely defined — indeed, reasons such as fascism and hate speech have been used to crack down on inconvenient viewpoints, in this very part of Europe not so long ago.

ICLA recommends terms such as hate speech are clearly defined before being considered for implementation into domestic legal systems by participating states, and that the potential for related legislation to be abused to stifle democratic debate is recognised and taken into consideration.

Thank you.

For links to previous articles about the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, see the OSCE Archives.

5 thoughts on “The Abuse of the Term “Hate Speech”

  1. Pity, only 65 views at the time of my viewing. I had difficulty understanding every word, perhaps because of congested sinuses combined with the background noises being picked up as attendees moved and fidgeted about. A transcript in the video description may be helpful.

  2. At least some voices of reason presenting at OSCE. Otherwise one would have to despair. When Damian Kowalski reports cases of Islamic extremism, the police investigates. When Maulana Abdul Rehman al-Nadwi al-Hindi openly states “If you are in the fortunate position to kill an American or European, whether French or Australian or Canadian, or other unbelievers who have declared war on the Islamic State, then do so,” where exactly are the police and their investigators?

  3. How uneven the scales of discourse can be. Some have joined more than 500 people in signing a petition “against racism and Islamophobia” in the Engineering Society (Ensoc) RoUndie 500. Nine Egyptian, Palestinian and Syrian students last week posted a public letter on the Ensoc Facebook page saying “insensitivity and racism are not laughing matters”.

    What about an interesting verbal experiment? Take the complaint letter to the university vice-chancellor Rod Carr, almost word for word, but alter a few terms. Not as a laughing matter. As a matter for deep reflection. Here goes the original:

    “While these costumes may have been intended as ‘just a joke’ or ‘a bit of fun’, they portray stereotypes that are damaging to Muslims and people of colour, and further perpetuate racism and Islamophobia in our community, and alienate Muslim students and students of colour at Canterbury University.”

    Now the “parallel” text:

    “While these decapitated bodies may have been intended as ‘just a joke’ or ‘a bit of fun’, they portray stereotypes that are damaging to kafirs and people of reason, and further perpetuate hatred and Kafirophobia in our community, and alienate kafir students and agnostic students at our University.”

    And now original again:

    “I would like everyone who has somewhat enjoyed the student’s (sic) sense of humour to consider the way members of society, associated with these beliefs, feel as well as the impacts on their daily lives and the way they are viewed.”

    And to conclude, a “parallel” text again:

    “I would like everyone who has somewhat enjoyed the radical fighter’s (sic) sense of humour to consider the way members of kafir society, associated with this unbelief, feel as well as the impacts on their daily lives and the way they are viewed.”

    How does the shoe feel when it pinches on the other foot? Except kafirs do not go around chopping heads, flogging, crucifying, and raping for ideological reasons, while openly justifying their actions by passages from a Book.

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