UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues [DRAFT FOR GLOBAL CONSULTATION] Background Throughout his mandate the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Professor Fernand de Varennes, has adopted the unique approach of holding regional forums with the aim of making the annual UN Forum on Minority Issues more accessible for minorities, and to provide effective responses to problems affecting them, while taking into account regional contexts and realities. The regional forums are convened by the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues and are organised by the Tom Lantos Institute, in cooperation with local and regional partners. They inform the work of the UN Forum on Minority Issues with region-specific recommendations. In 2020, the theme of the regional forums and the UN Forum in Geneva was “Hate Speech, Social Media, and Minorities” and had the following objectives: ● ● ● ● ● Promote the understanding of the various forms and the harmful impact of online hate speech against persons belonging to minorities, as well as the role of social media in the dissemination of hate speech; Analyse and discuss the legal, institutional and policy challenges concerning the regulation of hate speech against minorities on social media platforms; Develop effective strategies to restrict the dissemination of hate speech against minorities on social media platforms, referring to good practices, in accordance with international human rights norms; Strengthen the participation of minorities and their representatives in global discussions on online hate speech as well as in the development of relevant laws and policies; Strengthen partnerships among various stakeholders so they can address hate speech against minorities on social media platforms more effectively. The European Regional Forum took place on 20-21 September 2020. The recommendations made at the Forum, and the video recording of the event can be accessed at Minority Forum Info. The AsiaPacific Regional Forum took place on 19-20 October 2020.1 In total, both regional forums produced 127 specific recommendations aimed at a wide range of stakeholders to improve the protection of minorities from hate speech on social media platforms underpinned by international human rights law. The present draft ‘Effective Guidelines on Hate Speech, Social Media and Minorities’ seek to build on these in order to provide detailed guidance on how social media companies can improve their content standards and their enforcement to combat online hate speech, and in particular when targeting minorities. The Special Rapporteur is pleased to share an initial draft of part of the Guidelines and the launch of a global consultation at RightCon 2022 to scrutinise and improve them. This is still very much a work in progress, and there remain some Guidelines that the Special Rapporteur is undecided on, which he has opted not to share in full. The Special Rapporteur intends to subject the draft Guidelines to both an open public consultation and series of expert roundtables focusing on the application of international human rights law (and minority rights) to social media companies (SMCs). This has conventionally centred on balancing the right to freedom of expression with the prohibition on incitement to hatred. It is hoped that this 1 For more information about previous and subsequent regional forums, please visit this page. The thematic focuses for 2019 and 2021 were “Education, Language and the Human Rights of Minorities” and “Conflict Prevention and the Protection of the Human Rights of Minorities”, respectively. 2