Hate speech and hate crime justify concerted response in Europe

At the conference “Stamping out hate crime and hate speech – Effective responses to hate crimes and hate speech online, and protection of victims”, organised by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Slovenia, together with the European Commission, through videoconference, the Minister of Justice has warned about the increase in hate crime and hate speech, in recent years, in Europe, in particular online, urging the European Union to “have a strong voice”.

Hate speech “stigmatises and dehumanises”, said Francisca Van Dunem. “It identifies those who belong to a minority group through a characteristic, which is inferiorised or demonised, be it race, ethnicity, language, religion, nationality, gender or sexual orientation”, she pointed out.

The use, in this "articulated speech", of words and expressions "that insult, intimidate or harass people or groups of people based on their race, colour, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation or religion", says the Minister of Justice, encourages discrimination, dehumanisation and violence.

Due to its discriminatory, racist, xenophobic, homophobic and socially divisive character, hate speech should not be seen as mere speech. “The messages it expresses are not received as messages or speeches”, added Francisca Van Dunem, rather they should be interpreted as attitudes and behaviours.

 “That speech cannot hide behind the right to freedom of expression. Indeed, the limits of freedom of expression are exceeded once the authors of speech take advantage of this freedom to justify their hatred, their threats and the instigation of violence”.

The Minister of Justice agreed that victim support is essential, stressing that at the same time a response should be provided through criminal law at European Union level to hate crimes and hate speech related to forms of intolerance other than racism and xenophobia

 “It is important to have a strong voice, which can be a compass for the inclusive society that we want to promote. Risk sharing, together with the relocation and dematerialisation of the main actors involved, justifies a concerted response against these behaviours at European level”.

For all these reasons, the Minister of Justice referred that Portugal will support an initiative of the Commission in this regard, as well as the inclusion of hate crimes and hate speech in the list of crimes under Article 83 of the Lisbon Treaty.