A/73/305 incidents were reported. 24 Out of the persons who proffered hate speech, five became members of the European Parliament. Out of 42 reported hate speech incidents against minorities, the most frequent form (27 reported incidents) involved implicit incitement to hatred, prejudice or discrimination. The Network estimates that more than 10 per cent of the members of the European Parliament are from parties propagating racist and/or xenophobic ideas. Candidates and other politicians have most frequently attacked migrants, foreigners and asylum seekers, sexually diverse populations, Muslims and Roma people. 20. In Australia and the United States and across Europe, politicians in government have used print and social media unapologetically to make racist and xenophobic statements that have included promises to adopt policies targeting specific rac ial, ethnic and religious groups, even when such policies would violate existing laws. In July 2018, the Minister of the Interior of Italy defied a decision by the Supreme Court of Cassation of Italy 25 in which the Court ruled that telling non-European Union foreigners to leave the country qualifies as racial discrimination. He responded to the ruling through a Facebook post, writing “Go home, go home, go home!” above a picture of a group of black African men. 26 In this climate of public intolerance, Italy has seen a stark increase in the number of seemingly hate -motivated violent attacks (including killings) since the beginning of 2018. 27 21. In the United States, President Donald Trump’s xenophobic nationalist populist rhetoric has consistently stigmatized and vilified migrants, refugees and racial and ethnic minorities. According to the latest official United States hate crime statistics, 28 published for 2016, law enforcement agencies reported 6,121 hate crimes, of which 57.5 per cent were motivated by race, ethnicity or ancestry. 29 These numbers represent an increase since 2015. 22. The report of this mandate on Nazism, neo-Nazism and related intolerance, presented to the General Assembly at its seventy-second session, focuses on racist expression online, which is where many incidents of racist and xenophobic speech also occur. For example, in January 2018 the World Jewish Congress recorded that anti-Semitic posts on social media, including Holocaust denialism, had risen by close to 30 per cent compared with the same period in 2016. 30 23. In parts of Africa, nationalist populist hate speech has often crystallized during electoral campaigns. Incitement to violence or hatred, including by politicians, community leaders or journalists, in the most extreme cases has resulted in gross human rights violations. On the continent, politicians have often used nationalist populist rhetoric to capitalize on legitimate long-standing, colonial-era grievances over land rights and other issues to galvanize illegitimate racial intolerance. The recent history of Zimbabwe offers an example. 31 In 2017, the Kenya National __________________ 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 18-12945 European Network against Racism, “Reporting hate speech in the #EP2014 campaign”. Elaine Allaby, “Telling migrants to ‘go home’ is racism, rules Italy’s top court”, The Local, 13 July 2018. Ibid. Lunaria, “Il ritorno della ‘razza’”, Focus N.4/2018, June 2018. Data on the number of incidents, offences, victims and offenders in reported crimes that were motivated in whole or in part by a bias against the victim’s perceived race, religion, national origin or disability. United States, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2016 Hate Crime Statistics database , available at https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2016/topic-pages/incidentsandoffenses. See A/HRC/38/53, para. 19. E. Tendayi Achiume, “The SADC Tribunal: sociopolitical dissonance and the authority of international courts”, in Karen J. Alter, Laurence R. Helfer and Mikael Rask Madsen, eds., How Context Shapes the Authority of International Courts (New York, Oxford University Press, 2017), p. 17. 9/22