CERD/C/GC/35
the right to freedom of expression;2 No. 25 (2000) on gender-related dimensions of racial
discrimination;3 No. 27 (2000) on discrimination against Roma;4 No. 29 (2002) on descent;5
No. 30 (2004) on discrimination against non-citizens;6 No. 31 (2005) on the prevention of
racial discrimination in the administration and functioning of the criminal justice system;7
and No. 34 (2011) on racial discrimination against people of African descent. 8 Many
general recommendations adopted by the Committee relate directly or indirectly to hate
speech issues, bearing in mind that effectively combating racist hate speech involves the
mobilization of the full normative and procedural resources of the Convention.
4.
By virtue of its work in implementing the Convention as a living instrument, the
Committee engages with the wider human rights environment, awareness of which suffuses
the Convention. In gauging the scope of freedom of expression, it should be recalled that
the right is integrated into the Convention and is not simply articulated outside it: the
principles of the Convention contribute to a fuller understanding of the parameters of the
right in contemporary international human rights law. The Committee has integrated this
right to freedom of expression into its work on combating hate speech, commenting where
appropriate on its lack of effective implementation and, where necessary, drawing upon its
elaboration in sister human rights bodies. 9
II. Racist hate speech
5.
The drafters of the Convention were acutely aware of the contribution of speech to
creating a climate of racial hatred and discrimination, and reflected at length on the dangers
it posed. In the Convention, racism is referred to only in the context of “racist doctrines and
practices” in the preamble, a phrase closely linked to the condemnation in article 4 of
dissemination of ideas of racial superiority. While the term hate speech is not explicitly
used in the Convention, this lack of explicit reference has not impeded the Committee from
identifying and naming hate speech phenomena and exploring the relationship between
speech practices and the standards of the Convention. The present recommendation focuses
on the ensemble of Convention provisions that cumulatively enable the identification of
expression that constitutes hate speech.
6.
Racist hate speech addressed in Committee practice has included all the specific
speech forms referred to in article 4 directed against groups recognized in article 1 of the
Convention — which forbids discrimination on grounds of race, colour, descent, or national
or ethnic origin — such as indigenous peoples, descent-based groups, and immigrants or
non-citizens, including migrant domestic workers, refugees and asylum seekers, as well as
speech directed against women members of these and other vulnerable groups. In the light
of the principle of intersectionality, and bearing in mind that “criticism of religious leaders
or commentary on religious doctrine or tenets of faith” should not be prohibited or
punished,10 the Committee’s attention has also been engaged by hate speech targeting
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
2
Ibid., Forty-eighth Session, Supplement No. 18 (A/48/18), chap. VIII, sect. B, para. 4.
Ibid., Fifty-fifth Session, Supplement No. 18 (A/55/18), annex V, sect. A.
Ibid., annex V, sect. C.
Ibid., Fifty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 18 (A/57/18), chap. XI, sect. F.
Ibid., Fifty-ninth Session, Supplement No. 18 (A/59/18), chap. VIII.
Ibid., Sixtieth Session, Supplement No. 18 (A/60/18), chap. IX.
Ibid., Sixty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 18 (A/66/18), annex IX.
Notably Human Rights Committee general comment No. 34 (2011) on freedoms of opinion and
expression (Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 40, vol. I
(A/66/40 (Vol. I)), annex V).
Ibid., para. 48.