Have you ever heard someone say freedom of speech as an excuse to use hate speech? They could be quoting the first US amendment, or the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights), but they aren't actually allowed to use it as an excuse. Hate speech is not a part of the freedom of speech contrary to popular belief, and people cant use it as an excuse. Although many countries have freedom of speech as a part of their laws there are many exceptions to what you can and can't say. Hate speech, for example, does not fall under the freedom of expression. The debate on whether hate speech is a part of freedom of speech and expression has been going on ever since the right was first added to multiple declarations, amendments and covenants. But what exactly is hate speech?

In 1997 the Council of Europe issued a recommendation on hate speech. In it, they stated that ¨all forms of expression which spread, incite, promote or justify racial hatred, xenophobia, anti-Semitism or other forms of hatred based on intolerance¨ was considered hate speech. Hate speech typically targets the ‘other’ in societies. This is manifested through the ‘othering’ of minority groups such as racial, ethnic, religious and cultural minorities, women and the LGBTQI+ community.

An example of hate speech is the recent death threats towards Sarah Johnson, a UK black lives matter activist. The threats have been going in her direction since last year when she became a large part of the UK black lives matter movement. Unfortunately, some people went through with the threats and Sarah Johnson is currently in the hospital having suffered a bullet to the head. Death threats are considered hate speech because it poses a risk or threat to others. And in the case of Sarah Johnson, many of the threats also included discriminatory language towards the black and coloured community. An important thing to note is that upholding free speech is hugely important to open societies that respect human rights. Human Rights Treaties outlaw offensive speech when it poses a risk or threat to others. Speech that is simply offensive but poses no risk to others is generally NOT considered a human rights violation or hate Speech.

The biggest excuse used by people who use hate speech is ¨but I have freedom of speech¨. If these people had actually read the official freedom of speech article they would realize that the official UDHR freedom of expression right (article 19) states that ¨Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.¨ many people think when the article states ¨freedom to hold opinions without interference¨, it means that they can say whatever they want without rebuttal or consequence by law. The official UDHR mentions nothing about consequence by law, but there are many articles in other UN human rights documents that do. For example, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that ¨Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law (article 20)¨.

A friend of mine, Georgia, once explained it by saying ¨Freedom of speech is not freedom of consequence¨. This means that even though people may have the freedom to say and share whatever they want, they don't have guaranteed immunity to rebuttal or interference by law enforcement. The International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination stated that ¨[States Parties] Shall declare an offence punishable by law all dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority or hatred, incitement to racial discrimination, as well as all acts of violence or incitement to such acts against any race or group of persons of another colour or ethnic origin (Article 4). This Covenant and many more outright state that hate speech is prohibited and punishable by law.