1 - Introduction

Summary

Reconciling protection against hate speech with the safeguarding of fundamental freedoms, particularly freedom of expression, has, historically, posed considerable regulatory challenges. Nevertheless, a number of developments have triggered a new wave of public, political, legal, and academic debates about the questions and conundrums underlying the legal regulation of hate speech. This chapter clarifies that the new globalized hate speech dynamics which have made the nature and scale of the challenges resulting from hate speech become ever more complex and wide-ranging. These dynamics have drawn renewed attention to Article 20(2) of the ICCPR which obliges states to legally prohibit advocacy of national, racial, or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence. The chapter illustrates that some of the dominant approaches to Article 20(2) of the ICCPR adopt a very narrow conception of the Article. These approaches conceive of the Article as a mere limitation clause on the exercise of freedom of expression. The chapter proposes the validity of a different approach by arguing that the Article sets forth an autonomous right to protection from incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence.