Model Training Materials: Hate Speech, Defamation and National Security expression under international law.3 As a quick review, under international human rights law any restriction on freedom of expression must meet the following requirements: 1) Be provided by law. 2) Protect a legitimate interest, defined as the rights or reputations of others, national security, public order, public health or public morals. 3) Be necessary to protect that interest (which includes a proportionality requirement). Hate Speech Under international human rights law, States have an obligation to prohibit hate speech which incites discrimination, hostility or violence. Article 20(2) of the ICCPR states: Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law. Other international treaties also require States to prohibit or respond to hate speech. The Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) requires States to prohibit the dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority or hatred, incitement to racial discrimination and incitement to acts of racial violence. 4 When hate speech amounts to incitement to genocide, it is an international crime within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, while the Genocide Convention requires States to prohibit “direct and public incitement to commit genocide”.5 Other international standards also address hate speech, such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which calls on States to address propaganda which promotes or incites racial or ethnic discrimination against indigenous peoples.6 Hate speech attacks the equality of its targets, one of the most cherished of human rights. It also inhibits the ability of impacted groups to participate freely in the public sphere, including by freely exercising their right to freedom of expression and to access information. Thus, while hate speech laws are a restriction on freedom of expression, they also support the realisation of the right. When hate speech laws are properly drafted and implemented, the right to freedom of expression and the right to be free from hatred are complementary rather than competing rights. See https://www.law-democracy.org/live/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Training-Materials-1.FOE_.format1.pdf. 4 21 December 1965, in force 4 January 1969, Article 4. 5 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 9 December 1948, in force 12 January 1951, Article III(c); and Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 18 July 1998, in force 1 July 2002, Article 25(3)(e). 6 General Assembly Resolution 61/295, 13 September 2007, Article 8(2)(e), undocs.org/A/RES/61/295. 3 The Centre for Law and Democracy is a non-profit human rights organisation working internationally to provide legal expertise on foundational rights for democracy. 2