United Nations Human Rights Council

54^th session

Item 9 - General Debate on Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance,

follow-up and implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action

EU Statement

Mr/Madam Chair,

I have the honour of speaking on behalf of the European Union.

The candidate countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Ukraine and Bosnia and Herzegovina[1] align themselves with this statement.

Allow me to start by reiterating the EU’s firm commitment to the fight against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance. We remain steadfast in our commitment to eradicate racism in all its forms and across all strands of society.

With regard to the report of the 13^th session of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of Complementary Standards to the ICERD, the EU would first like to thank the Permanent Representative of Djibouti as Chair-Rapporteur for her tireless efforts to advance the discussion within the Committee in a meaningful manner.

The EU has a long-standing tradition of engaging actively and constructively in the work of the Ad Hoc Committee, even if we fundamentally disagree with the premise that the ICERD has substantive or procedural gaps. This does not mean that that the EU is not undertaking concrete action. Publicly inciting to violence or hatred because of race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin is forbidden in the EU. We also invest in countering hate speech online, particularly with the adoption of the Digital Services Act which regulates the use of the networks. A lot of work is furthermore being done by the High Level Group on combating hate crime and hate speech^[2], and in December 2021, the European Commission published a Communication on extending the current list of EU crimes to hate crime and hate speech.

At the level of the Ad Hoc Committee however, progress is much more limited. On core questions such as what the role of criminal law versus civil law is in fighting hate speech and hate crime; what the scope should be of the conducts that qualify for criminalization; how to define key concepts such as “xenophobia” and “harm”; whether discrimination on the basis of religion or belief should be included; and what legal safeguards are needed when criminalizing hate speech and hate crime, there is no agreement nor common understanding.

For these reasons, we believe the time is not ripe for the Ad Hoc Committee to start formal negotiations on a draft protocol criminalizing acts of a racist and xenophobic nature. Further clarity will have to be provided first. The international community has a duty to tread carefully when developing new norms, in particular when the right to freedom of opinion and expression is concerned.

I thank you.

[1] North Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process

[2] https://ec.europa.eu/info/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/combatting-discrimination/racism-and-xenophobia/combating-hate-speech-and-hate-crime_en#the-high-level-group-on-combating-hate-speech-and-hate-crime