Mr. Dieng started his speech very optimistically. “The future belongs to the youth,” which flattered the audience as the majority of it were curious students. He said he believes that we can change the world to the better.
Hate speech and incitement to genocide were two of the main focuses of his speech. He started off with illustrating the problem with the case of Rwanda where hate speech was used to dehumanize an ethnic group – the names that were used were “those cockroaches” etc. Hate speech was used in same way in the World War II for dehumanizing Jews. He exposed that also Colonel Qaddafi used these names to name his opponents.
“Incitement to genocide must be direct, meaning both the speaker and the listener understand the speech as a call to action.” However, the question remains – what does direct mean in different cultures? It goes without saying that the role of incitement has been seen to be so significant in relations to genocide in the way that it can be prosecuted even if the genocide is never perpetrated. “It is the attempt of the speaker that matters, not the effectiveness of the speech,” added mr. Dieng.
Not all hate speech contains incitement – but when it does, it can trigger mass violence. Therefore we need more clarity on what constitutes incitement to genocide. By better knowing what constitutes incitement, we can use better means to control it.
Addressing the phenomena of hate speech and incitement to genocide Mr. Dieng pointed out the challenges and tools for monitoring incitement to genocide as well as policy approaches. According to Mr. Dieng, our first task is to develop a multi–layered approach. “We must recognize the units of legislation to counter hate speech and incitement, we need approach to find the root causes of hate speech, racism and discrimination.” Approach that would improve promotion of human rights and tolerance and find understanding among different groups.
“We must be creative and find new technologies to fight the hate speech”. This message was addressed on several groups: government, civil society and also journalists in order to warn about settlement of hate, which could be made through media.
Talking about policy options in order to stop and prevent incitement to crimes such as genocide, Mr. Dieng stressed the importance of a seminar which was organized by his office in February and took place in Geneva. This seminar as he said is a part of way to build on 2012 Rabat Plan of Action. Latter is consisted several workshops on countering advocacy of national, racial and religious hatred which constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.
During the whole speech Mr. Dieng was highlighting the role of education of society as a preventive measure for combating the root causes of genocide. That same society will “see diversity as a benefit and no affect”. “The moment has come to share our different and build strong partnership on this important matters”, said Mr Dieng. Therefore he addressed all of us students as well as academics to take a challenge and find ways to contribute to counter intolerance, discrimination and hatery. In other words all the responsibility lies on us.
Mr. Dieng concluded his message with short comment on the work of the Organization of the United Nations: “The United Nations as such are indispensable, despite that we should always remain critical to UN, but on the other hand we need to be also very supportive of UN.”
What did the delegates think about the lecture?
The majority of delegates of General
Assembly state members attended the guest lecture and showed interest in topic
of Hate speech and Incitement to Genocide. The UN Herald collected brief
impressions and observations about the lecture of Mr. Dieng. Every state
representative expressed recognition of importance of preventing genocide in
the early stages. Majority of them agreed that hate speech can be seen as one
of the causes for development of further violent acts and atrocities. Just few
delegates were more critical about the work of UN and asked for more concrete
solutions. In addition to this, some delegates shared more controversial statements
and brought back the memories about genocides in Algeria and Armenia.
Bellow you can read the sum up of statements given by permanent representatives to the UN.
Jana Osojnik, Permanent Representative of the State of Israel to the UN:
We strongly support the activities of the UN Secretary-General's Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide. We have a moral duty not to repeat the history and we have the responsibility to protect our population. Not only the actions, also the intent has to be punished in order to protect all the people and their human rights.
Tamara Čakić, Permanent Representative of Egypt to the UN:
I believe that the underlying message of Mr Adama Dieng 's lecture was that global society should have to learn a lesson from its history, especially its part sadly marked by bloodshed and violent atrocities. International society should learn that accepting diversity (of any kind) as an advantage is the only path to achieving peaceful and secure world.
Urška Učakar, Permanent Representative of the United States of America:
We support statements made by the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng and will continue our support for the Rabat Declaration, also through our Atrocities Prevention Board and other multilayered approaches. It is important to consider our policy options and continue our support for human rights, prevention of human sentiments of hatred and international monitoring capacity.
Matej Jordan, Permanent Representative of Republic of Korea to the UN:
We would like to emphasize words of Mr. Dieng who said that speech can trigger mass violence and certain measures should be taken to limit hate speech. Even though our state supports freedom of media, we still believe that all new media (especially digital) should be monitored with new technology to find hate speech.
Gorazd Mihelin, Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN:
The sole fact, that Mr. Dieng´s office was opened after the Ruanda disaster, is a witness to growing importance of recognizing hate speeches as one of the causes for the worst crimes imaginable, namely genocides. Nigeria feels, that it is a good step forward to recognize civil society as an actor involved in recognizing and countering hate speech.
Sara Jud, Permanent Representative of Turkey to the UN:
We support and highly value the activities of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocidee and call upon states to track and take appropriate measures in cases of perceived hate speeches. We condemn all kinds of incitements to genocide and suffer caused by target killing. It is of great importance that no double standards are applied and all victims recognized and treated in the same way.
Tamara Pungeršek, Permanent Representative of Mexico to the UN:
Mexico agrees with Mr. Dieng on the importance of education system in schools in which students should recognize diversity not as a threat to majority but as a benefit to promote human rights and tolerance, which are the main contributors to more civilized international world in the future. Finally, as Mr. Dieng said, we all have the responsibility to prevent hate speech, starting with the youth.
Tjaša Božič, Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN:
Mr. Dieng highlighted some extremely important beliefs and ideas, such as the importance of preventive measures, the need for clarity of the constitutive elements of incitement to genocide, the need to prevent and punish incitement to genocide, the need to develop a multilayer approach promoting tolerance and human rights, and the role of education in preventing genocide. Regarding the latter Italy believes that only education can assure that people see diversity as a benefit and not as a threat. Therefore chances of genocide will decrease with assurance of education for everyone.
Tamara Juričić, Permanent Representative of South Africa to the UN:
Having overcome apartheid, South Africa is very well aware of hate speech and its negative consequences, which might reach even the level of apartheid, genocide and other massive human rights violations. It's important that preventive measures were addressed, but we call the UN to be more concrete in specifying the solution.
Gaétan Vernier, Permanent Representative of People's Democratic Republic of Algeria to the UN:
Mr Dieng’s mission in the UN for prevention of genocides is essential and innovative as it extends the possibilities of identification of the risks very early. Indeed, not only the state discourse is analyzed, but also the trends of hatred within the society are identified in the new media thanks to an effective monitoring. Nevertheless, we wish to point out that, as in the case of the genocide attempt of France against Algerians, a genocide can be neither a consequence of a popular will nor a publicly expressed state's goal, but fomented in the secret and concealed by lies of state.
Martina Škrobar, Permanent Representative of the French Republic to the UN:
The French Republic appreciates and supports his statement and would on this occasion like to express that we stay fully committed to address, prevent and punish hate speech and incitement to all crimes against humanity. As we strongly believe that only with recognising our or our ancestors’ mistakes and bad deeds we can effectively learn from it and sincerely engage ourselves to never allow it to be repeated, we would like to have heard today at least a reminder of the Armenian Genocide that should never be forgotten although it continues to be unrecognised from all states.
Tonja Avsenik, Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the UN:
Mr. Adama Dieng emphasized the importance of discovering new ways to contribute to the prevention of genocide and hate crimes. In this respect Ethiopia agrees that approaches towards eliminating the root causes of hate speech and racism should be addressed.
Iva Petković, The Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the UN:
The UK is staunchly against all forms of discrimination, hate-speech, violence and extremism. To counter hate-speech, States should promote human rights and tolerance, focus on education and media, build capacities through dialogue and positive speech, create strong partnerships and be creative. Change doesn't happen over night, but the UK is committed to working with the UN and recommits itself to "never again" after witnessing the consequences of unrestrained evil.
Almedina Jakupović, Permanent Representative of Venezuela to the UN:
Every individual has right to express her/his beliefs, until it does not imply to a hate speech. Venezuela considers an education as the essential mean in our fight against all forms of hate speeches and as Mr Dieng said "education sees diversity as a benefit, not a threat.
Tjaša Primc, Permanent Representative of Saudi Arabia to the UN:
We welcome his concern about the situation in Syria that is becoming a space of severe crimes against humanity. We also agree with one of his points about the importance to establish approaches to challenge the roots of hate speach and to work on preventive actions.
Mojca Ferme, Permanent Representative of Cuba:
I could not agree more with mr. Adama Dieng when he said we need to fight the root causes of hate speech – racism and discrimination – and create a society which sees diversity as a chance and not as an obstacle.
Katarina Mulec, Permanent Representative of Australia:
As Mr. Dieng stated, the words can often make more damage than bullets. Australia had a dark past when it comes to hate speech and it's consequences. This is why, through our education, we are making sure our youth not only enjoys the multitude of cultures in Australia but also embraces the experience they can gain from understanding the rich past our native people have.
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