NIHR Participates in a Workshop on “Monitoring the Hate Speech and the Role of the National Human Rights Institutions”
The National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR), represented by NIHR’s Chairperson of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Committee Mr. Fareed Ghazi, Chairperson of Civil and Political Rights Committee Mrs. Jameela Salman and Chairperson of Complaints and Monitoring Unit Mr. Badee’ Jubail, participated in a workshop entitled “Monitoring and Reports on “Hate Speech and the Role of the National Human Rights Institutions”, organized by the Arab Network for National Human Rights Institutions in cooperation with the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Oman Human Rights Commission from 11 to 13 October 2016 in Muscat, the capital of Oman.
The workshop dealt with limitations and controls in International Law which are relevant to freedom of speech and expression, as well as the basic standards for monitoring hate speech in the Rabat action plan. It further discussed the methods used in the control of incitement to hatred through assessment of the legal frameworks and policies in the Arab region to outlaw hate speech and to what extent this restricts the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and identification of the basic principles to monitor this type of speech.
Member of the NIHR’s Council of Commissioners Mr. Fareed Ghazi presented a paper on freedom of opinion and expression and the distinction between this right and hate speech. He dealt with national legislations in this regard and the country’s endeavors to guarantee freedom of opinion and expression and confront hate speech, illustrating the role undertaken by the NIHR in the enhancement and protection of this right and rejection of hate speech. He further demonstrated the role of social media in broadcasting hate speech with religious or sectarian background and the role of the Ministry of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments in Bahrain in monitoring and controlling religious discourse in order to avoid hate speech.
The paper further addressed the protection of freedom of opinion and expression and the prohibition of hate speech stipulated in Article 23 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bahrain, as well as amendments of the Penal Code that details controls for exercising those rights. The paper included a number of recommendations, among which the most important was the work on drafting a special law on hate speech for clarification and criminalization pursuant to Article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the necessity to organize the practice of freedom of opinion and expression and to prohibit hate speech pursuant to the triple procedure stipulated by Article 19 of the abovementioned International Covenant, which stipulates that the law should provide for restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression and that such restrictions are necessary to protect another right that is worthy of more attaention.
The workshop was concluded by holding workgroups for training on mechanism of monitoring of hate speech through presenting models from the Arab region.
