Incitement to hatred in the light of case law

For many international and national texts, a certain type of speech is deprived of the protection offered by freedom of expression, or even has to be criminalized. Forms of expression resulting in, revealing or encouraging hostility towards a group, or towards an individual because of his or her membership in a group are commonly defined as "hate speech".

At the international level, racism is repressed, among others, by the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and by the ICCPR.

Under the provisions of Article 20 of the ICCPR, certain speeches must be restricted. According to article 20, paragraph 2, "Any incitement to national, racial or religious hatred which constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence is prohibited by law".

Likewise, article 4, paragraph a, of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination requires States Parties to declare offenses punishable by law "any dissemination of ideas based on superiority or hatred. racial, any incitement to racial discrimination, as well as any acts of violence, or provocation to such acts, directed against any race or any group of persons of another color or another ethnic origin, as well as any assistance brought to racist activities, including their financing ”.The expression “hate speech” is not expressly used in the Convention, but this has not prevented the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination from identifying and naming the phenomena of hate speech and from studying the links between the rhetoric and the standards enshrined in the Convention (general recommendation No. 35 (2013), § 5).

Incitement to hatred is thus an abuse of freedom of expression (I); it constitutes a criminal act (II).