The international community faces an ongoing challenge in protecting the rights to freedom of opinion and expression while also combating incitement to genocide and preventing violence based on hatred. This was stated at a panel discussion Friday about hate speech and incitement to genocide.

“It is important to balance the principle of freedom of expression with the need to prevent or stop the most extreme cases of hate speech – those that have the potential to incite mass violence,” said Adama Dieng, U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide.

Dieng, a former Registrar for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, said he personally witnessed the role hate speech can play in instigating atrocities, and prevention that could stop such crimes.

The power of speech was underlined by several of the panelists. “Speech can be a powerful tool for collective action, including violence”, stated Susan Benech, Genocide Prevention Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute.

The responsibility of the state in relation to hate speech was also debated. Frank LaRue, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, pointed out that “the state has an obligation to protect people from harm, but not from offence”.

He added: “The factors that make speech dangerous had been identified in several initiatives. These include the severity, content, extent, imminence, likelihood, and context of the speech. However, we need more clarity on what constitutes incitement to atrocity crimes, because a better understanding on what constitutes incitement can also better limit or control it”.

Aidan White, founding Director of Ethical Journalism Network, a global campaign to promote ethics and good governance across all media platforms, stressed the importance of journalistic work to avoid hate speech leading to hatred and violence. “Good journalism is not just about giving facts. It’s about providing context, analyses, commentaries to help people to take informed decisions,” he said.

A seminar, co-hosted by the U.N. office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, will be held on February, 22^nd to identify policy options for stopping and preventing incitement to atrocity crimes in situations where violence is imminent.