"Evil begins with a word. The tragedies of individuals, but also the worst crimes against humanity, begin with dehumanisation, harassment and incitement to hatred," emphasises Magdalena Adamowicz, MEP and chief negotiator of the EPP group for the draft legislation to criminalise hate speech and hate crimes in the European Union. Adamowicz is speaking ahead of today's vote on the issue at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
"EU crimes" are crimes of a particularly serious nature with a cross-border dimension, as defined in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. Currently, hate speech and hate crimes are dealt with differently in different EU countries, while EU-wide rules are limited to race, colour, religion or national or ethnic origin.
"Words that spread hatred and incite crime are murderous weapons and it is high time they were treated as such," Adamowicz said.
Expressing hate speech and committing hate crimes is not only an attack on human dignity, but also disrupts the fabric of society and threatens the basic principles of unity. Today, these acts are amplified by extremist and populist movements and further amplified by social media. Unfortunately, there has been little progress among EU Member States and the necessary unanimity has not been achieved to approve this decision.
"I therefore call on Member States to unblock the practice and to include hate speech and hate crimes in the EU list of criminal offences," Adamowicz concludes.
eppgroup.eu/GN.CZ-RoZ_07
https://www.eppgroup.eu/newsroom/combating-words-that-incite-violence
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