OSCE anti-racism conference ends with calls for stronger laws against hate speech on Internet
(OSCE/Alex Nitzsche)Sir Peter Ustinov speaking at the OSCE Conference on Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination, 4 September 2003. (OSCE/Alex Nitzsche) Photo details
VIENNA, 5 September 2003 - The OSCE concluded a conference on racism, xenophobia and discrimination today with a session that included contributions on the role of the media in conveying and countering prejudice. Many speakers focused on the electronic media and several called for strengthened legislation or implementation of existing conventions to suppress access to websites that disseminate hate-speech and racist messages.
Others felt that a legal approach was either unacceptable or unlikely to be as effective as enhancing the offer of sites promoting human rights and more positive messages, and other means of meeting the challenge "in the market place".
The conference, which drew almost 400 representatives from participating States, partner States and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), ended with an assurance from its Chairman, the Netherlands Ambassador Justus de Visser, that all contributions and recommendations voiced over the two days would be reflected in the final report.
The final report will be discussed at the OSCE's annual Human Dimension meeting in Warsaw next month, which is likely to produce recommendations for discussion by the Foreign Ministers of the 55 participating States, when they convene for their annual meeting in Maastricht on 1 December 2003.
This racism conference was the second event, after the conference on anti-Semitism in June, to be held by the OSCE as a follow-up to a decision by the Ministerial Council in Porto last December. It asked the OSCE to focus on the role of governments and civil society in promoting greater tolerance and support for the victims of prejudice and discrimination.
Gerard Kerforn, head of the long-established French NGO, Movement against Racism and for Friendship among Peoples, one of the Friday session's keynote speakers, won support for a detailed recommendation on the gathering of statistics to help analyse the structure of the Internet resources used by racists, their occurrence in "fragile" situations and the impact they have on inter-communal tensions.
Others felt that a legal approach was either unacceptable or unlikely to be as effective as enhancing the offer of sites promoting human rights and more positive messages, and other means of meeting the challenge "in the market place".
The conference, which drew almost 400 representatives from participating States, partner States and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), ended with an assurance from its Chairman, the Netherlands Ambassador Justus de Visser, that all contributions and recommendations voiced over the two days would be reflected in the final report.
The final report will be discussed at the OSCE's annual Human Dimension meeting in Warsaw next month, which is likely to produce recommendations for discussion by the Foreign Ministers of the 55 participating States, when they convene for their annual meeting in Maastricht on 1 December 2003.
This racism conference was the second event, after the conference on anti-Semitism in June, to be held by the OSCE as a follow-up to a decision by the Ministerial Council in Porto last December. It asked the OSCE to focus on the role of governments and civil society in promoting greater tolerance and support for the victims of prejudice and discrimination.
Gerard Kerforn, head of the long-established French NGO, Movement against Racism and for Friendship among Peoples, one of the Friday session's keynote speakers, won support for a detailed recommendation on the gathering of statistics to help analyse the structure of the Internet resources used by racists, their occurrence in "fragile" situations and the impact they have on inter-communal tensions.