The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is to set up a National Hate Speech Register, to record all incidences and media reports of hate speech from across Nigeria, aimed at addressing discrimination, divisions and violence in the country.
Executive Secretary (ES) of the Commission, Chief Anthony Ojukwu, SAN, gave the disclosure Thursday in Abuja during a ‘roundtable on the role of the media in countering and reporting hate speech’, organised for media executives by the NHRC in collaboration with the United Nations System in Nigeria.
The event is a precursor to the Second International Day Against Hate Speech coming up on June 19, 2023 across the globe.
Noting the negative impacts of hate speeches in promoting violence, suppression and other forms of human rights violation before, during and after elections, Chief Ojukwu said his agency would train its staff on monitoring and reporting of hate speech as well as set up enforcement mechanisms to facilitate sanctions against culprits.
He said, “The National Human Rights Commission, in the exercise of its mandate, launched ‘Mobilising Voters for Election (MOVE)’project, which has a broad mandate to promote access, participation and accountability in the 2023 general elections in Nigeria.”
“Hate speech is intricately related to human rights, either in its form or outcome.
“From the purveyor, it is about right to freedom of expression, opinion, speech or belief. To the recipient, it is a violation of the rights to dignity of human person and the freedom from discrimination based on religious belief, political, ethnic, gender, cultural or other affiliations, amongst many other human rights,” he said.
Ojukwu further said: “Following the conclusion of the elections and in looking forward to the three off-cycle state elections later in 2023, there is a need for stock-taking and to mobilise concerted efforts to strengthen the media in countering hate speech as a major precursor to achieving peaceful elections and social cohesions.”
Also, in his opening remarks, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr Matthias Schmale, decried what he called “the proliferation of misinformation, fake news, disinformation and hate speech in the digital space,” which he said is “causing grave global harm by fuelling conflict, death and destruction; threatening democracy and human rights and undermining public health and climate action.”
Mr. Schmale said the UN system in Nigeria, “together with the National Human Rights Commission, have designed a comprehensive agenda to address the many facets of hate speech and the role of the media,” and called on stakeholders in the media industry to be sensitive to issues of religion, ethnicity and human rights.