A/80/496
urges States to continue and expand engagement with the United Nations and ensure
adequate funding for all its work.
Early warning systems that integrate racially and ethnically disaggregated data
11. Developing and maintaining effective early warning systems, which identify
key risk factors for violence and trigger timely and effective responses, are an
important part of preventing conflict, as well as reducing its intensity and duration.
Early warning systems have been developed at the national, regional and international
levels. Human rights violations, including discrimination, exclusion, hate speech and
racialized inequality, are important warning signs of impeding violence. The Special
Rapporteur on minority issues recognized that incorporating rights indicators into
early warning systems would enable the earlier identification of potential conflicts. 16
12. The work of human rights mechanisms, such as the special procedures and treaty
bodies, can act as early warning systems to States. The Committee on the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination has developed, in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, a
dedicated early warning system and urgent procedures to try to prevent serious
violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination. The Special Rapporteur welcomes this work and urges States to fully
utilize the findings and recommendations of the United Nations human rights
machinery in developing effective early warning systems.
13. To effectively detect trends in increasing discrimination, hate speech, exclusion
and racialized inequality, monitoring and early warning systems must include racially
and ethnically disaggregated data. Many United Nations human rights entities,
including the Special Rapporteur, have highlighted the importance of the collection
and publication of data disaggregated by race, ethnicity, caste and intersectional
grounds for discrimination and recommended that States strengthen and expand their
efforts in this regard. 17 Data that are fully disaggregated and collected according to
human rights standards, including the principles of consent and self -identification,
and that effectively capture racial and intersectional discrimination play an important
role in recognizing the warning signs of crisis and conflict. The Special Rapporteur
urges States to step up efforts to collect and publish data disaggregated by race and
ethnicity as an essential component of conflict prevention systems. In addition, the
Special Rapporteur highlights that quantitative disaggregated data can be
complemented with qualitative data reflecting the lived experiences of those from
marginalized racial and ethnic groups.
Racist hate speech
14. The spread of racist hate speech, including the most serious forms of this
scourge, which meet the criteria for incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence,
has a strong interrelationship with violent conflict, as reflected in many submissions
received by the Special Rapporteur. Manifestations of racist hate speech described in
those submissions included racial slurs and stereotypes, racialized narratives about
conflict situations, the scapegoating and dehumanization of those from marginalized
racial and ethnic groups, the legitimization and justification of violence towards those
from racial and ethnic groups, and reframing aggression as legitimate self -defence.
The submissions contained descriptions of how political figures and elites engaged i n
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16
17
6/21
See A/HRC/16/45.
See for example, A/HRC/59/62; A/70/335; A/79/316; A/HRC/23/50; A/HRC/42/59; A/HRC/57/67;
CERD/C/ZAF/CO/9-11; CERD/C/PRT/CO/18-19; Committee on the Rights of the Child, general
comment No. 26 (2023), para. 15; and Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights (OHCHR), “Disaggregated data to advance the human rights of people of African
descent: progress and challenges”, 2023.
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