LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY UNDER HATE ATTACKS

What is “hate speech”?

Any communication in speech, writing or behaviour that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender or other identity factor.

UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech

Hate speech covers many forms of expressions which advocate, incite, promote or justify hatred, violence and discrimination against a person or group of persons for a variety of reasons. It poses grave dangers to the cohesion of a democratic society, the protection of human rights and the rule of law. If left unaddressed, it can lead to acts of violence and conflict on a wider scale. In this sense, hate speech is an extreme form of intolerance which contributes to hate crime.

European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)

There is no unified international legal definition of hate speech, and national protection instruments are often based on different interpretations. In fact, concerning the fundamental right to freedom of speech, international law prohibits the incitement to discrimination, hostility, and violence since, when explicit and deliberate, this might trigger actions from discrimination to atrocity crimes. However, even if it is not a direct incitement, hate speech can be harmful.

Considering the variety of countries and minorities represented by the FUEN member organisations, the Minority Hate Monitor uses the UN and ECRI definitions and addresses hate speech as:

The cases presented by the Minority Hate Monitor, therefore, range from hate speech to assaults and vandalism, all targeting national minorities and/or their members.

Minority Hate Monitor is an initiative supporting the FUEN's campaign Mute Hate Speech, which aims to link the concerns of minorities, FUEN and EUROPEADA, with UEFA-EURO24 to attract as much attention as possible. Through its new Hate Cases section, the Minority Monitor project will map cases of hate speech against minorities in all of its forms – written, verbal, and visual – disseminated through media (printed, radio, TV), online platforms, art, street art, or aggressive acts against the minority cultural heritage.

From June to July 2024, within a month after the first call for inputs, eight member organisations from seven countries submitted 40 cases. This is a testament to the power of collective action. FUEN continues to collect cases, which will be published on a rolling basis. Your contribution is crucial in this fight against hate speech. To provide input, please use the following reporting form: https://forms.gle/ZX4bBA1XWehqgeAb7   

The right to language

Language is a powerful identity marker and a community-building and binding mechanism. As a means of communication, it is a fundamental element of societal structures, enabling individuals to come together and develop a sense of interconnectedness and belonging. As a mechanism for transmitting information, it is a powerful tool for maintaining and preserving cultures in their diversity. According to recent studies, besides the 37 national languages in Europe, there are 60 regional or minority languages and another 225 autochthonous languages (European Commission, 2017).  The existence of some minority communities, however, largely depends on the right and possibility to learn and use their minority language in private and in public.

Linguistic rights are human and civil rights, both individual and collective. Although they were first defined as a human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the right to language has been addressed by several international treaties and other instruments since the early 19^th century (e.g. the 1815 Congress of Vienna, the 1925 Treaty of Lausanne, etc.). After 1948, a range of international instruments have ensured the right to language by prohibiting discrimination based on linguistic grounds. Among these are the UN International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Protocol No 12 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the European Social Charter and European Convention on Human Rights.

Since the 1990s, a positive approach to promoting and protecting linguistic diversity and the language rights of users has been adopted. The 1992 UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, in its Article 2 (1), makes a particular reference:

Furthermore, Article 4 outlines that states must

(2) … create favourable conditions to enable persons belonging to minorities to express their characteristics and to develop their culture, language, religion, traditions and customs…

and

(4) … take measures in the field of education in order to encourage knowledge of the history, traditions, language and culture of the minorities existing within their territory.

In 1992, alongside the UN, the Council of Europe adopted the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which aims to ensure respect for linguistic diversity and to protect minority and especially endangered languages. Legally binding the signatories, the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (1995) engages states to create the conditions to enable persons belonging to minorities to use, preserve and develop their languages and, hence, their cultural communities.  

In 1996, the UNESCO World Conference on Linguistic Rights issued the Barcelona Declaration. It's Article 3 defines the inalienable personal rights, which may be exercised in any situation:

At the European level, the protection of diversity and, in particular, language rights of minorities are mainly addressed by Article 22 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2012) and by the European Parliament resolution of 7 February 2018 on the protection and non-discrimination with regard to minorities in the EU Member States, which under “Protection and defense of minority languages”:

In summary, the international instruments – some directly applicable to national contexts or projected by national legislation – protect the right to language, its use in private and public, and nondiscrimination based on such grounds. In this light, hate speech and attacks against linguistic diversity and users shall be viewed as acts of disrespect, intolerance and violation of human and civic rights. Hence, states shall not neglect language-based incidents but address them promptly and adequately. Unfortunately, this is still not always the case. The examples below clearly demonstrate the differences in the attitudes of the general public and the state institutions towards language-related hate acts.

Language-based hate acts

Following the FUEN’s call for information submission, between June and July 2024, ten hate cases related to the use of languages were reported to the Minority Monitor by minority organisations from Croatia, Spain (Catalunya), and Poland. Seven out of the ten incidents come from Catalunya only. The cases, dating from 2015 to 2024, reveal that when it comes to language, not only individuals but also societies and authorities can become supporters and/or perpetrators of hate acts and crimes.

Beating up youngsters on the streets for using their mother tongue, challenging the right to use minority languages in public or sanctioning individuals for claiming their linguistic rights before authorities, the cases indicate that regardless of the national and international regulations in place, their implementation is still lagging. Those who suffer and are exposed to ad-hoc discrimination, aggression and violence are, to a large extent, individuals belonging to minority communities.

The problematic issues that minority language users are exposed to are illustrated by the following entries:

Vukovar 2024: Minority teens beaten for speaking Serbian dialect

Barcelona 2022: Police fines and punish a citizen with the "Gauge Law" for defending his linguistic rights

Terrassa 2022: Denied right to minority language

Mataró 2021: Shop assistant rejects to serve a person for speaking Catalan

Spain 2021: Challenged right to Catalan identity

Spain 2021: Hateful posts by politicians against Catalan language

Elx 2019: Linguistic discrimination

Spain 2019: Hateful messages against Red Cross campaign in Catalan language

Opole 2015: Performance interrupted due to use of German minority language

Opole 2016: Gun threats for the use of minority language