PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS – A Practical Guide to Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation In the age of social media, in which hate speech is propagated – and rapidly amplified – on the Internet, legal questions about the limits of the governance of speech are increasingly being applied to address, for example, the obligations of social media companies and Internet service providers to intervene to control or prohibit hate speech.1198 Since January 2021, Facebook’s Oversight Board has used the Rabat threshold test in several decisions1199 and explicitly referred to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, general comments by treaty bodies, reports by special procedures and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. IV. NON-LEGAL MEASURES As a general matter, globally, discussions on combating hate speech have had a strong focus on non-legal measures. Expressions of intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization on grounds of race, colour and ethnicity,1200 on religion or belief,1201 sex and gender, sexual orientation,1202 gender identity,1203 sex characteristics1204 and disability and towards particular vulnerable groups, such as migrants, refugees, Roma and others,1205 should be addressed with positive interventions: education, awareness-raising, support for victims to enable counter speech and the dissemination of positive narratives, including through public information campaigns with positive, diversity messaging.1206 States should take measures to monitor hate speech and incitement to violence in media and social media and establish independent media monitoring bodies.1207 These measures have, in fact, a basis in human rights treaty law1208 and comprise positive obligations on States. Public officials have particular responsibilities to systematically denounce and condemn hate speech publicly. Regional human rights systems have drawn explicit links between tackling hate speech, freedom of expression and the ban on discrimination. Thus, for example, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has noted: The Commission and its Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression reaffirm that in order to effectively combat hate speech, a comprehensive and sustained approach that goes beyond legal measures and includes preventive and educational mechanisms should be adopted. As previously stated by the Office of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, these types of measures strike at the cultural root of systematic discrimination. As such, they can be valuable instruments in identifying and refuting hate speech and encouraging the development of a society based on the principles of diversity, pluralism and tolerance.1209 It is for these reasons that the detailed guidance on implementing the United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech stresses that: “Public condemnation of hate speech, accountability for attacks on those exercising their right to freedom of expression, and the expediting of public policy measures on the 186 1198 Of particular note in recent years has been the high-level scrutiny of the role of Facebook in inciting hatred of Rohingya in Myanmar. See the report of the detailed findings of the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar, including details of the role of Facebook, p. 339 et seq. Available at www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/myanmar-ffm/reportofthe-myanmar-ffm. 1199 See https://oversightboard.com/decision. 1200 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, general recommendation No. 35 (2013), paras. 29 and 40. 1201 Human Rights Council resolution 16/18. 1202 CCPR/C/SVK/CO/4, para. 15. 1203 Ibid.; CCPR/C/LBN/CO/3, para. 14; CCPR/C/UZB/CO/4, para. 7; CCPR/C/GEO/CO/4, para. 8; and CCPR/C/RUS/CO/7, para. 10. 1204 CCPR/C/BLZ/CO/1/ADD.1, para. 15; CCPR/C/KOR/CO/4, para. 15; and CCPR/C/LTU/CO/4, para. 12 (a). 1205 CCPR/C/HUN/CO/6, para. 18; and CERD/C/POL/CO/22-24, para. 22 (e). See also A/HRC/29/24; and Council of Europe, European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, “ECRI general policy recommendation No. 13 on combating antigypsyism and discrimination against Roma”, revised version (Strasbourg, 2020). 1206 See, in particular, A/74/486, as well as Human Rights Council resolution 16/18. 1207 Human Rights Council resolution 46/58. 1208 Including, in particular, although not necessarily limited to: International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, art. 7; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, art. 5; and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, art. 24. 1209 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Violence against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Persons in the Americas, para. 248 (footnote omitted).