WHEN HATE AGAINST MINORITIES GOES BEYOND CONTROL

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[1]

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)[2]

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:

* An extreme form of intolerance, which

* in any communication in speech, writing or behaviour,

* attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language to

* advocate, incite, promote or justify hatred, discrimination and violence against a person belonging to a minority or a minority community as a whole

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 just 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 cases were processed and grouped in several thematical lines for reporting purposes. The current article introduces the cases escalating

From Hate Messages to Hate Crimes

Seventeen hate cases were reported to the Minority Monitor by minority organisations from four European states. The number of inputs per country, referring to incidents dated 2015 to 2023, is as follows: Croatia – 3 cases, Greece – 8 cases, Poland – 5 cases, and Romania — 1 case.

Thematically, the majority of the reported incidents refer to displayed hate messages in public places – as graffiti or posters – to offensive emails and insulting letters sent to minority representatives and organisations and racist statements written on walls. However, some cases refer to direct threats – written in direct communication, on banners, or spoken during life broadcasts. One of the most striking incidents of verbally expressed hate, repeated continuously, is the Croatian song “Kill the Serb”.

As the above-provided ECRI definitions suggest, hate speech “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”. Hate cases, which under national or international laws qualify as criminal offences, including homicide, threats and arson, are considered “hate crimes”.[3]  According to the OSCE/ODIHR definition, the “biased motivation” which differentiates this type of criminal case against others, refers to the selection of the target (a person or a property) based on specific protected characteristics [4] and the target’s presumed or actual membership or association with a defined group of persons (in the considered context – minorities).

Among the reported cases, four can be qualified as vandalism, and four as physical acts of aggression against a person or assault. Demolition of minority cultural heritage or religious sites in use is undoubtedly to be sanctioned. Cases of hate assaults and aggression towards persons for using their different identity, for using their minority language, or just for belonging to a minority community should not only be condemned by the societies at large but also punished by law as criminal offences.

The following cases, reported in a dossier style, provide details about different instances of hate against national minorities. Each case can be accessed through the link provided below:

Insults/Threats

Split 2024: Anti-Serbian Graffiti

Opole 2022: Email threats against Rafał Bartek

Didymoteicho 2022: Anti-Islamic Poster on a Public Building

Xanthi 2022: A Politician Threatened in a Live Broadcast

Xanthi 2020: Anti-minority Hate Messages

Zagreb 2020: “Kill the Serb” football fan song still in use

Opole 2019: Offensive email provoked by a photo competition

Opole 2018: Insulting letter to the German minority

Opole 2016: Gun threats for the use of minority language

Aggression/Assaults

Vukovar 2024: Minority teens beaten for speaking Serbian dialect

Resita, Romania 2024: Hate assault on a minority boy

Xanthi 2022: A Minority Teenager Attached

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

Vandalism

Xanthi 2023: Vandalism in a Mosque

Polianthos 2023: Attack on a Turkish Cemetery

Xanthi 2022: Historic Muslim Turkish Cemetery Demolished

Komotini 2020: Attack on a Fountain Built by a Western Thrace Turk

References

[1] United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, June 2019, https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/advising-and-mobilizing/Action_plan_on_hate_speech_EN.pdf ;

United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action  on Hate Speech Detailed Guidance on  Implementation for  United Nations Field Presences, September 2020, https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/UN%20Strategy%20and%20PoA%20on%20Hate%20Speech_Guidance%20on%20Addressing%20in%20field.pdf

[2] Council of Europe, European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, https://www.coe.int/en/web/european-commission-against-racism-and-intolerance/hate-speech-and-violence

[3] OSCE/ODIRH 2018, Manual on Joint Hate Crime Training for Police and Prosecutors, p.19 https://www.osce.org/odihr/402296

[4] The protected characteristics stem from many international human rights treaties, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), , and also the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) or the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

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