PART FIVE: DISCRIMINATION AND EXPRESSION that takes into account the position of the speaker is embraced by the Court in its judgment in the Jersild case, which reflects this key criterion of the Rabat Plan of Action. The Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression has offered the following guidance in this regard, in particular as concerns online hate speech: Are there categories of users to whom the hate speech rules do not apply? International standards are clear that journalists and others reporting on hate speech should be protected against content restrictions or adverse actions taken against their accounts. Moreover, an application of the context standards of the Rabat Plan of Action would lead to the protection of such content. Politicians, government and military officials and other public figures are another matter. Given their prominence and potential leadership role in inciting behaviour, they should be bound by the same hate speech rules that apply under international standards. In the context of hate speech policies, by default public figures should abide by the same rules as all users. The evaluation of context may lead to a decision to make an exception in some instances, when the content must be protected as, for example, political speech. However, incitement is almost certainly more harmful when uttered by leaders than by other users, and that factor should be part of the evaluation of platform content.1176 B. Disseminating ideas based on racial superiority or hatred Article 4 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination provides that: States Parties condemn all propaganda and all organizations which are based on ideas or theories of superiority of one race or group of persons of one colour or ethnic origin, or which attempt to justify or promote racial hatred and discrimination in any form, and undertake to adopt immediate and positive measures designed to eradicate all incitement to, or acts of, such discrimination and, to this end, with due regard to the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the rights expressly set forth in article 5 of this Convention, inter alia: PART FIVE (a) Shall declare an offence punishable by law all dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority or hatred, incitement to racial discrimination, as well as all acts of violence or incitement to such acts against any race or group of persons of another colour or ethnic origin, and also the provision of any assistance to racist activities, including the financing thereof; (b) Shall declare illegal and prohibit organizations, and also organized and all other propaganda activities, which promote and incite racial discrimination, and shall recognize participation in such organizations or activities as an offence punishable by law; (c) Shall not permit public authorities or public institutions, national or local, to promote or incite racial discrimination. Article 4 creates obligations on States that are related to those provided by articles 19 (3) and 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights but are discrete and different. Notably, article 4 (a) prohibits the dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority or hatred, rather than the incitement of hatred. As the High Commissioner for Human Rights has noted: “article 4 (a) of [the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination] prohibits the mere dissemination of ideas based on superiority and racial hatred … the dissemination of the idea itself is what attracts sanction without any further or requirement about its intent or impact”. 1177 In the same report, the Commissioner noted that: “This may seem a subtle difference but it is significant in determining the scope of the law.”1178 Nevertheless, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has pointed to the need for violations to reach the standard of incitement, noting that “public denials or attempts to justify crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity, as defined by international law, should be declared as offences punishable by 1176 A/74/486, para. 47 (d). See also Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, general recommendation No. 35 (2013), para. 15. 1177 A/HRC/2/6, para. 39. 1178 Ibid. 183